Smallbizlabs Bidding on Newsweek

The popular magazine Newsweek is for sale. Its current owner, The Washington Post, says it’s losing money and “might be a better fit elsewhere.”

Evidently Newsweek is not worth much. Ad Age quotes an investment banker on the value of Newsweek as saying ”I can’t tell you that it’s more than a buck, unfortunately.”

My mother and my in-laws subscribe to Newsweek. I’m pretty sure other family members do too. I figure if I offer everyone in the family free subscriptions in exchange for stock, I should be able to quickly raise $200 to $300. If I can buy Newsweek for, say, $57 this would leave capital for operating expenses.

I think Newsweek would be a great fit with Smallbizlabs. While Newsweek is a big business, it seems well on its way to becoming a small business. The Ad Age article says one of Newsweek’s biggest problems is too many subscribers. I’m confident under our ownership the number of subscribers would quickly fall.

Yes, there will be some integration issues. They’re on the east coast, we’re out west. They’re an award winning magazine with a rich history and an international reputation for outstanding reporting. We’re – well let’s just say we’re not that.

But we make money.

So, Washington Post, we’re opening the bidding at $50 (we want to leave some negotiating room). This is a substantial premium (50X) over Newsweek’s estimated value. I suggest you move quickly on this. We’re also looking at the SF Chronicle and only have bandwidth for one deal at a time.

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