Sidney Harman has died at 92

Sidney Harman, the man who bought Newsweek for $1 and its debt, has died. From the LA Times obit:

Harman died Tuesday night in Washington, D.C., of complications from leukemia, according to a statement from his family on the website of the Daily Beast, which Harman merged with Newsweek. He was married to former Democratic Congresswoman Jane Harman of Venice.

The path of Harman's long career took him from the electronics industry to government, academia and, finally, the Fourth Estate. His passion for the arts and philanthropic impulses led him to provide funding for Washington, D.C.'s Sidney Harman Hall, a popular performance space. An indefatigable reader and thinker who was fascinated by creative geniuses, Harman also at age 92 founded the Academy for Polymathic Studies at USC. From heart, he could recite long passages from Shakespeare, or Abraham Lincoln or Maxwell Anderson, and would often embroider a thought or regale dinner-party guests with an apt quote.

In November 2010, when Harman was being hammered by critics skeptical of his deal to merge Newsweek with Barry Diller's Daily Beast website, he offered, in an interview, a quote from Lincoln's speech before Congress in 1862: "The fiery trial through which we pass will light us down in honor or dishonor to the latest generation."

Mixing metaphors, and Huffington Patch vs. NewsBeast

AOL's purchase of Huffington Post is a fascinating case study of old and new media feeding off one another in a strange orgy of mutual cannibalism - legacy eats innovator eats legacy; pay eats no pay eats pay. It seems so incongruous, and yet so dirty natural as to be inevitable.

Here is Arianna Huffington, maven of the progressive blogosphere and mistress of the skimpy or nonexistent paycheck, and AOL, a company mostly associated with dial-up Internet and a panicky but paid-for venture into local news, making common cause to take on the likes of Yahoo News and NewsBeast (the royal marriage of the money-losing Newsweek and Tina Brown's mostly paid-in-exposure Daily Beast).

On one hand, we have once mighty media companies struggling to survive on a model of paid news staff who generate original content and, on the other, surging media companies that have learned to harness the power of ideological branding, agenda journalism and exposure-as-compensation to drive enormous traffic, though without the ad dollars to match. Given the triumphalist social media chatter, one would think the likes of HuffPo and the Daily Beast would leave their crippled ancestors to die upon the banks of the primordial swamp; instead the oldster companies have swallowed their offspring to serve as a sort of mitochondrial life force.

Which raises the obvious question: Will most or all of the writers and bloggers working for these hybrid media empires get paid? Even Dan Gillmor thinks they should.

And some writers do. Before Huffington Post and the Daily Beast got gobbled up, they'd hired veteran journalists from the likes of Newsweek, the New York Times and the Washington Post to invigorate their journo credentials and gain seats at the pundits' tables. Howard Kurtz, who worked at the Washington Post, which sold off Newsweek, has gone to the Daily Beast. Howard Fineman, who worked at Newsweek, which merged with the Daily Beast, is now senior politics editor at Huffington Post.

This feels like the kind of viral cross-contamination that has to happen for online media to move forward, though the evolution/mutation is far from over.

In strictly business terms, AOL-HuffPo has a built in advantage over NewsBeast. Huffington Post is more popular than Daily Beast and AOL has a large stable of news sites, such as TechCrunch and the relatively new Patch network, both giving AOL a foot in the niche/hyperlocal markets. These sites now fall under Arianna's editorial guidance. She's proven extremely adept at managing a single brand, her own, but can she manage multiple brands with different editorial missions? Or does everything AOL go The Huffington Way?

(edited)

Rep. Harman heads to think tank

Rep. Jane Harman, D-El Segundo, will announce tomorrow that she is leaving Congress to head the Woodrow Wilson International Center for Scholars think tank. Her departure leaves Democrats scrambling to find a suitable replacement (The City Maven tweeted that LA Councilman Janice Hahn has already announced she'll run and Marcy Winograd, president of the Progressive Democrats of Los Angelse, has been mentioned as well).

Harman, who sits on the influential House Intelligence Subcommittee, is a staunch defender of Israel and a reliable hawk. Her departure opens the door to Democrats who'd like to see a more liberal person in the seat. It's unlikely Republicans will be able to take the South Bay district,  which runs from Venice to Redondo, then curls around the Palos Verdes peninsula to take in part of the Port of Los Angeles.

Harman's husband is Sidney Harman, who recently bought Newsweek magazine, which he quickly mated with Tina Brown's The Daily Beast, and which will probably be a prime competitor against the newly formed AOL-Huffington Post and Yahoo News. Thus begins the battle of the Howards (Howard Fineman, formerly of Newseek, now at Huffington Post, versus Howard Kurtz, formerly of the Washington Post, which sold Newsweek to Harman, who is now a Daily Beast writer).

Four in the morning

1. Guests on public television news and interview shows are mostly white and male. FAIR

2. NPR fired Juan Williams for statements he made about Muslims on "The O'Reilly Factor" (WaPo). There's some push back from other media (Slate). NPR's president explains further (LA Observed). Williams does more talking on Fox (NYT).

3. Jim Rainey does not think public radio will replace newspapers as a main source of local news. LA Times

4. Have you applied to become the next editor of Newsweek? Hispters should probably apply twice. The Awl

Two more leave Newsweek

Investigative reporter Mark Hosenball is leaving Newsweek to join Reuters as "money and politics" reporter. Adam Kushner, senior editor for foreign coverage for Newsweek, is headed to the National Journal Group, where he'll be deputy magazine editor-in-chief. Both moves reported by Gorkana.

Four in the morning

1. Twenty-eight-year old Pulitzer winner uses his prize money to establish a fund for rural reporters. IRJ

2. Las Vegas Review-Journal defends its practice of suing over alleged copyright violations. LV Sun

3. Thank god someone is finally giving corporations a chance to be heard. Forbes will run corporate/marketing/advertising blogs alongside staff blogs to make sure these afflicted get the comfort they so sorely need. AdAge

4. I guess since so many journalists have already left, Sidney Harman won't have to fire that many people at Newsweek. Poynter

Huffington Post thinks the revolution runs through the mainstream

The Huffington Post has savaged the mainstream media for being out of touch. To prove the point, the website has hired the epitome of mainstream news, writer and political Howard Fineman, away from Newsweek.

Four in the morning

1. The judge in the Tribune Co. bankruptcy case has appointed a mediator to work through the impasse. LAT

2. Media critic Jack Shafer says hostage situations should not be covered as de facto breaking news. Slate

3. Press freedoms in Latin America are being chipped away despite the democratic reforms. Newsweek

4. The Associated Press has released new guidelines for giving credit to news organizations that originally reported information that's been assimilated into AP stories. AP

Newsweek like a house on fire

Journalists are running from Newsweek as fast as they can. The latest escapee is Michael Hirsh, the magazine's national economics correspondent (and former chief diplomatic correspondent). Fareed Zakaria recently bolted for Time magazine. Investigative reporter Michael Isikoff left for NBC News. Deputy managing editor Evan Thomas announced his retirement earlier this month, as did Editor John Meacham. But it's not just the stars. According to Gawker, Digital GM Geoff Reiss, editorial director Mark Miller, and digital executive editor Gabriel Snyder have also departed.

Sidney Harman, Rep. Jane Harman's rich husband, bought the debt-laden magazine and threatened to outsource some of the work. The loss of big-name journalists could hurt the magazine's content, but could also stave off some layoffs, given that they probably earned fancy incomes. Still, it must be a fear fest inside the Newsweek offices these days.

Four in the morning

1. Sidney Harman is full of ideas for making Newsweek a more successful magazine, including discounts on books written by Newsweek writers, connecting dots, and, "has a fundamental respect for the business aspects of the operation, who doesn't think this is somehow an artistic undertaking totally separate from the real world." WSJ

2. The Tribune Co. bankruptcy negotiations have broken down. Does this mean debtors want to see the contract even more before they're willing to make a deal? ChiTrib

3. Star Trek nerds bypass Riverside exhibit, for now. Press-Enterprise

4. Amid the travails of bankruptcy, the Los Angeles Times has a scrappier feel these days, with what feels to be a more robust watchdog-approach to local reporting than in recent years. For all the good work, Tribune has decided to get the newsroom new time clocks. Ed Padgett

Rep. Jane Harman to get good press in Newsweek*

Sidney Harman, who made his money on the harmon/kardon speaker brand, has bought Newsweek from the Washington Post Co., the New York Times and others report. Harman, 91 and soon to be 92, is married to California Congresswoman Jane Harman, who represents parts of the South Bay and chairs the influential House Intelligence subcommittee.

*Update: Jack Shafer at Slate has collected several attempts at humor, posted on Twitter, about the $1 purchase price (the deal is more complicated than that, of course). Harman's age is the lowest of the low-hanging fruit. For instance: @dan_mccleary Sidney Harman is 90. Maybe he thinks he is buying a Newsweek subscription.

If it washes up on a beach and no one's there to see it...

Newsweek reports on complaints from news photographers that British Petroleum, with the aid of local and federal officials, is blocking access to areas hardest hit by the Gulf oil spill.

From the story:

Last week, a CBS TV crew was threatened with arrest when attempting to film an oil-covered beach. On Monday, Mother Jones published this firsthand account of one reporter’s repeated attempts to gain access to clean-up operations on oil-soaked beaches, and the telling response of local law enforcement. The latest instance of denied press access comes from Belle Chasse, La.-based Southern Seaplane Inc., which was scheduled to take a New Orleans Times-Picayune photographer for a flyover on Tuesday afternoon, and says it was denied permission once BP officials learned that a member of the press would be on board.

This morning, scientists said the Deepwater Horizon leak had probably surpassed the Exxon Valdez as the worst oil spill in U.S. history.

Four in the morning

1. It's Earth Day: Buying green won't buy you absolution. Newsweek

2. How social pressure through social media closed the gap between "Web site" and "website". Bloggasm

3. The Journalism Shop is expanding its roster beyond former Los Angeles Times reporters and editors. Journalism Shop (via LA Observed)

4. Sometimes it takes an institution (the Boston Globe) to take on an institution (the Catholic Church). Nieman Journalism Lab

Four in the morning

1. Tribune Co., owner of the Los Angeles Times, is looking to diversify its advertising dollar with Tribune Hispanic. Ed Padgett

2. The Los Angeles Times has hired Jack Dolan of the Miami Herald to beef up its database journalism in Sacramento. LAO

3. Newspapers' silver lining rides on a big gray cloud. Alan Mutter

4. Are we all becoming pawns on a vast digital chessboard? Newsweek

Little news

Newsweek chronicles the "hyperlocal" movement's attempts to gain a foothold in three New Jersey suburbs. It appears that even though the business model has yet to pay off that the homegrown efforts started by local journalists already are being supplanted by sites owned by national media giants - the New York Times, AOL and MSNBC among them. Why would the majors want to play in the minor leagues? From Newsweek

[I]f an operation like AOL's Patch can link together a network of $200,000-a-year sites each run by a single reporter, and then amortize big expenses (like technology and ad sales) across multiple sites, you could start to see decent profits. The low overhead is crucial: not only are startups like Patch using less costly labor, but they also believe readership and revenue will grow as networks of hyperlocal blogs link to each other, and as they become adept at persuading small businesses that never advertised in newspapers to give online advertising a shot—a key to Patch's strategy.

This model would probably only work in heavily populated suburbs. But it does seem logical that the chain websites would end up chasing revenue from the other types of chains that grow up in suburban landscapes: Starbucks, Ruby Tuesdays, Barnes and Noble, and the like. That, in turn, is likely going to shape how these sites develop.

The Colbert guest issue

Stephen Colbert guest edits Newsweek. Read his letter to readers here.

Lean times

Newsweek, in retreat, turns to "The Bluffer's Guide" for help:

Starting in May, articles will be reorganized under four broad, new sections — one each for short takes, columnists and commentary, long reporting pieces like the cover articles, and culture — each with less compulsion to touch on the week’s biggest events. A new graphic feature on the last page, “The Bluffer’s Guide,” will tell readers how to sound as if they are knowledgeable on a current topic, whether they are or not.

Thinning the edge

The latest Newsweek poll gives Barack Obama a slight lead over John McCain. Obama is up 44 percent to 41 percent, down from a 15 point lead, 51-36, in June.

The economy and you

Want to know more about the housing crisis everyone's talking about? Then list to my show.