The Death of Newsweek—or the Rebirth?

Newsweek put up for sale: Jon Stewart with Jon Meacham re: the role of journalism in serving democracy. Video.

Watching the below video with Jon Stewart was yet another hallelujah moment of confirmation: from Meacham’s perspective digital or new media is where even old school Newsweek should be focusing. The web is where readers and therefore advertisers are going…and the problem right now is that people aren’t in the habit of paying for what they read online.

So our “Become an Elephant” Grassroots Network plan—which we debuted two weeks ago and which is working slowly, but steadily—seems to be one way to re-establish quality journalism (it’ll enable us to pay our writers to do independent, researched journalism) and thus serve as a “Catcher in the rye between democracy and ignorance,” as Meacham puts it:

“Wednesday May 5, 2010

In this complete, unedited interview, Jon Meacham discusses the future of reporting when people don’t want to pay for news.”

Thursday April 29, 2010
Exclusive – Jon Meacham Extended Interview Pt. 2
Jon Meacham believes it’s time for Newsweek to shift its focus from print to digital in this complete, unedited interview.