The Washington Post Co. announced Wednesday that it has retained Allen & Company to explore the possible sale of NEWSWEEK magazine. The newsweekly, which has struggled in recent years, was launched in 1933 and purchased by The Washington Post Co. in 1961.

Washington Post Co. Chairman Donald E. Graham came to New York to tell the magazine staff at a 10:30 a.m. ET meeting on Wednesday. “We have reported losses in the tens of millions for the last two years,” he said. “Outstanding work by NEWSWEEK’s people has significantly narrowed the losses in the last year and particularly in the last few months. But we do not see a path to continuing profitability under our management.”

Graham said the company decided to go public with the news to invite as many potential buyers as possible, and said the sale could be completed within a few months. “Our aim will be–if we can do it–a rapid sale to a qualified buyer,” he said. “We’re a public company and we have to consider the price offered. But we’ll have a second and third criteria: the future of NEWSWEEK and the future of those who work here.”

…

To that end, NEWSWEEK Inc. Managing Director Ann McDaniel told the staff: “Because we don’t have a secret buyer waiting in the wings, because no deal is imminent, some things are unknown. I do hope that you get to stay together as the great team that you are. In case that doesn’t happen though, let me make one thing perfectly clear: Any employee, business or editorial, in good standing at the time of the sale, who does not get an offer from the new owner, will get the severance, notice, dismissal and RIF pay described in the contract and in NEWSWEEK’s severance policy on the intranet. If you are new to NEWSWEEK, and remain in good standing through the sale, you will get four months of pay.”

—Washington Post Co. to Sell Newsweek

Strangely enough, Jon Meacham lets Observer know that he is considering options to buy the mag and that he doesn’t call back billionaires:

Newsweek is up for sale, and editor Jon Meacham is going to explore the possibility of rounding up some bidders to buy the magazine himself…. He said he had two voicemails from “two billionaires” after the news was announced this morning that The Washington Post Company was going to try to sell the magazine. He said he had not called them back.

—Meacham on Buying Newsweek: ‘I’m Going to Take a Look at This’

If you’re interested in the details, PaidContent has some really crazy numbers and details.

Andrew Sullivan writes:

But in this redesign, we should be grateful for the usual neglect. Our page is by far the least messed up…

I know the designers meant well and worked very hard. Like everyone else, I deeply appreciate their hard work. Maybe some agree with Goldberg that this HuffPo/DailyBeast/Gawker type melange is, in fact, “a thorough reimagining of what a magazine’s website could be: Current, topical, intellectual, earnest (and ironic), but rooted in the culture and history of one of America’s most indispensably important magazines.”

I understand that advertisers like “verticals” to pitch certain kinds of products, and are allegedly leery of individual bloggers with style. I also know in this media climate how vital advertising is, and how our survival online is critical to our endurance in print. I am not a businessman. And I deeply believe in the Atlantic, as readers well know. If this keeps us afloat, that sure is better than going under. If there is business genius here, congrats to all involved.

But treating blogs as a series of headlines, designed to maximize pageviews, is a deep misunderstanding of blogs, their reader communities and their integrity. I hope they get restored to their previous coherence, and these amorphous “channels” gain some editorial identity. I hope writers like Fallows and Goldberg aren’t treated as random fodder – anchors! – for “channels”. I believe in the Atlantic as a place for writing. The redesign seems to me to ooze casual indifference to that and to the respect that individual writers deserve.

Jeffrey Goldberg jokes:

I think you can still find my blog the old way. But I’m not sure. There are a lot of buttons on this thing.

Ta-Nehisi Coates predicts:

And after some conversation on Friday, expect the appearance, and feel of that “Ta-Nehisi” page to change in the next couple weeks or so. It won’t completely be the old blog, but we are going to do everything we can to get as much of the old blog back as we can. Moreover, we will specifically address the formatting issue that a lot of you raised in terms of seeing only one sentence. That will change. Overall, something better, if not perfect, is on the horizon.

James Fallows complains:

I consider the new layout of “personal” blog pages to be a serious step backward, since it makes all sites look the same and drains them of personality and visual interest, plus making them much harder to read. I hope, and think, that this part of the design will be re-visited.

On the one hand it’s refreshing to see this level of transparency, (mostly) thoughtful critique and dialogue with lots of feedback from the comments to bolster arguments. But I can’t help wondering what message is sent out to the world about The Atlantic when its contributors use their columns to criticize the business and product decisions that drove this redesign.

What do you think?

I saw Avatar tonight and I can safely say the visuals are stunning. The 3d is unlike anything I’ve ever seen before—by the end of the film I not only felt that Pandora is real, but that I was there.

That said, I can’t help but agree with Annalee Newitz’s critique of the racial fantasy at the heart of Avatar’s plot. Warning: plot spoilers for Avatar and District 9 below…

In both Avatar and District 9, humans are the cause of alien oppression and distress. Then, a white man who was one of the oppressors switches sides at the last minute, assimilating into the alien culture and becoming its savior…

These are movies about white guilt. Our main white characters realize that they are complicit in a system which is destroying aliens, AKA people of color – their cultures, their habitats, and their populations. The whites realize this when they begin to assimilate into the “alien” cultures and see things from a new perspective. To purge their overwhelming sense of guilt, they switch sides, become “race traitors,” and fight against their old comrades. But then they go beyond assimilation and become leaders of the people they once oppressed. This is the essence of the white guilt fantasy, laid bare. It’s not just a wish to be absolved of the crimes whites have committed against people of color; it’s not just a wish to join the side of moral justice in battle. It’s a wish to lead people of color from the inside rather than from the (oppressive, white) outside.

Think of it this way. Avatar is a fantasy about ceasing to be white, giving up the old human meatsack to join the blue people, but never losing white privilege. Jake never really knows what it’s like to be a Na’vi because he always has the option to switch back into human mode. Interestingly, Wikus in District 9 learns a very different lesson. He’s becoming alien and he can’t go back. He has no other choice but to live in the slums and eat catfood. And guess what? He really hates it. He helps his alien buddy to escape Earth solely because he’s hoping the guy will come back in a few years with a “cure” for his alienness. When whites fantasize about becoming other races, it’s only fun if they can blithely ignore the fundamental experience of being an oppressed racial group. Which is that you are oppressed, and nobody will let you be a leader of anything.

The whole article is definitely worth a read: When Will White People Stop Making Movies Like “Avatar”? And I do still highly recommend seeing both films.

• 1. There’s no 728 leaderboard. A full width expandable unit and box ad in the c-col are the main ad units above the page fold on the homepage. This is not surprising considering I’ve been hearing for years that leaderboard ads don’t perform well and this new combo seems to be the “Apple”-friendly ad package
• 2. The beautiful simplicity of the header, particularly the breathing room around logo and the treatment of headers on section fronts, really strengthens the brand
• 3. The new grid is nice and much stronger than the old grid
• 4. As many have pointed out, the “latest headlines,” are now somewhat buried—one of the things the old CNN had going for it was the latest headlines were always clear
• 5. The play icon overlay treatment on the lead video on the homepage makes the whole thing look like an ad
• 6. The consistency of design treatment even in the show promos near the bottom of the page is impressive
• 7. I can see how the arrow icons next to “Money” and “Sports” in the main nav can be confusing to people, although I will say that when I first noticed them I assumed from their placement and treatment that they were partner/sister sites
• 8. The fact that NewsPulse doesn’t remember your filtering preferences when you revisit the page kind of defeats the purpose of personalization. It’s also a lot more interesting when you change the dropdown on the top right to 15 minutes (otherwise it doesn’t offer much more than a most popular box on the homepage)
• 9. http://www.cnn.com/video/ is the same experience. Can’t wait to see what they’re planning for the next iteration of this section.
• 10. The CNN Challenge, an interactive video quiz with CNN anchors, is incredibly well executed. All the details are in place (e.g. flashy motion graphics intro with sound, a leaderboard, score tracking, interesting variation in questions and question formats, compelling transitions between states of the application, etc.)

One of the first editions of New York Magazine is available for free online through Google Books. The April 29th, 1968 edition, art directed by Milton Glaser, includes bold typography, illustrations and a story on New York graffiti. It’s nice to see that the logotype from ’68 is virtually unchanged today.

NPR’s Scott Simon posted a video walkthrough of the redesigned NPR.org site, scheduled to launch 7/27. It seems like NPR is trying to solve very specific challenges here, for example driving more traffic to their topical categories by moving the current left-hand nav to the top of the page and giving it a prominent treatment.

It’s worth noting that there isn’t a single feature here that is completely innovative (although the fullscreen slideshow is very nice and similar to something we have had in the works for Newsweek.com). But it’s clear from the video that the overall impact of specific interface changes can make a big difference in the overall site experience. I’m really looking forward to checking out the new site when it launches.

What do you think of the redesign?

Vanity Fair’s literary editor, research, and copy departments edit Sarah Palin’s resignation speech. It’s hilarious and reminiscent of when Colbert edited a letter from Newsweek’s Jon Meacham a few weeks ago, minus the Cheetos of course.

I’m not a big advocate of awards shows, particularly in advertising, but the Outdoor Grand Prix winner the 56th Cannes Lion International Advertising Festival this year is noteworthy. From AdAge:

The “Trillion Dollar Campaign” for the newspaper The Zimbabwean from TBWA Hunt Lascaris, Johannesburg, South Africa, plastered real Zimbabwean trillion-dollar banknotes onto billboards, murals and fliers, serving as a real-life symbol of the country’s record inflation and economic collapse. The campaign ultimately aimed to raise awareness of Zimbabwe’s suffering under the Mugabe regime and increase the newspaper’s customer base elsewhere in the hopes of getting it back into the hands of Zimbabwe people.

The paper was exiled from the country for exposing the corruption of its government, which subsequently imposed a 55% luxury import tax on the publication, making it unaffordable for the average citizen.

I’m glad the campaign is getting recognition outside of Zimbabwe.

Blockhead played a great set at the worst venue ever (the 2005 World Cyber Games USA National Final Tournament) in the Hammerstein Ballroom last night. Tim and I waited for longer than I’d like to admit, suffering through some terrible anime and impromptu push-up/pantomime contests (not kidding), to see Blockhead’s free set. But I think the other 5 people who stuck around would agree.. it was worth it.