Newsweek magazine up for sale to curb down losses

London, May 6 (ANI): The Washington Post Company owners of the struggling current affairs magazine, Newsweek, has put it for sale after efforts to refocus the publication failed to curb down heavy losses.

The Washington Post has owned Newsweek since 1961. It announced today that it was calling in an investment bank, Allen and Company, to seek a buyer for the magazine.

Sluggish advertising and readers' migration to the Internet during the financial crisis led to the proposed sale, The Guardian reports.

"Despite heroic efforts on the part of Newsweek's management and staff, we expect it to still lose money in 2010. We are exploring all options to fix that problem," said the company's chairman, Donald Graham.

"Newsweek is a lively, important magazine and website, and in the current climate, it might be a better-fit elsewhere," he said.

The group's magazines division, which includes Newsweek, suffered an operating loss of 29.3 million dollars last year and 16.1 million dollars in 2008.

The group took a series of steps last year to try to revive the publication by shifting its focus from breaking news to provocative, often left-leaning, issues and commentary.

In an effort to reduce Newsweek to a more manageable size, the publisher deliberately cut its circulation, which had been as high as 3.1 million per week to 1.5 million by raising cover prices and ending deep discounts on renewals, the paper reports. (ANI)