 "Photo: Damien Donck")
Student Life sat down with Newsweek Editor in Chief Jon Meacham on Saturday and spoke to him about the election, the coming Obama administration and the future of print media. Here are his thoughts:
Student Life: How does Newsweek, a mainstream publication with no niche audience, find unique ways to cover the election of Barack Obama, a story that practically every media outlet around the world is covering?
Jon Meacham: What’s happened is interesting. I would argue that we do have a niche audience, which is people that care deeply about the news and that appreciate the voices and reporting we bring to them every week, and every day online. [Our readership is] 2.6 million.
What happens in moments like this, which I didn’t really anticipate, is that people tend to go to the larger brands in moments of overarching news. We’re selling out of our election issue around the country—we had to go back on press. We are doing a newsstand special that I am editing on my Blackberry right now. There is an enormous hunger for anything about this.
SL: It seems that Newsweek reporters spent a lot of time with each of the candidates. Which candidate did reporters prefer?
JM: At the moment you want to be on Obama’s [campaign bus] because McCain’s bus is parked. But Murray Kimpton, the great columnist, always said that the loser’s locker room is more interesting. And in some ways defeat is more interesting. Senator McCain deserves enormous credit for the kind of campaign that was run and would have been fabulous to spend a year with. Senator Obama…seems, for someone who is the center of this unfolding global drama, unusually in touch with reality.
SL: This was the longest presidential campaign in recent American history. How did that affect Newsweek’s bottom line?
JM: Reporting the way we do is expensive, because it involves having good people doing important inch-by-inch shoe-level work. We are committed to making people think and telling them things that they don’t know but should, or we think they should. So if that’s your mission, then where your heart is then there shall your treasure be also—to reverse the scripture.
SL: What was your reaction when Senator McCain announced Governor Sarah Palin as his running mate? How did you prepare your team to cover this twist in the campaign?
JM: Well, we knew her a little bit because she had come to a Newsweek conference on women and leadership in 2007. Karen Breslau, our San Francisco bureau chief, was one of the first national reporters to ever go to Alaska and talk to her. So we had a bit of a head start on everybody else and took advantage of it.
I think we did some really good early pieces on her. Perhaps this says more about me than it probably should, but I had no inkling that [McCain] might even think about her, which is what he wanted. John McCain’s father used to say that the world is run by poker players, not system analysts. And this was a poker player’s move.
SL: Newsweek ran a zoomed in, untouched cover photograph of Governor Palin that was met with a lot of controversy. How did you decide to run this photo? Did you anticipate this backlash?
JM: I will say that this is the only time I can say that we were criticized for doing the right thing. We just don’t retouch photos. I honestly, swear to God, did not think it was an unflattering picture and was quite surprised actually by that reaction. Now the content of the piece, which I wrote, I fully expected to be—in a way—more controversial than perhaps it was. The idea that the qualification for office is that you are one of the people…struck me as unsound. I’ll let the piece speak for itself and I stand by it. And I stand by the cover too.
SL: What was it like in the Newsweek newsroom on election night?
JM: It was historic. My kids came to the office. I just thought they might remember dimly being around for a moment like this. There is no question that this is a transformative moment. Senator McCain has said that, President Bush has said that. Whatever your politics, this is a moment that has a redemptive nature to it, given our racial history. And no matter where you stand, that’s a reality and that’s exciting.
SL: From a journalist’s perspective, do you wish the results on Tuesday night were a little closer, the returns a little more exciting?
JM: If it had been closer, you have the possibility of people having hard feelings, or harder feelings, and feeling as though something was taken away. It was a great contest. I thought that McCain had a better-than-even chance of winning until the market collapsed in mid-September. I think there was plenty of excitement, so I’ll take the excitement that was offered and I won’t wish for anymore.
SL: The youth excitement throughout this campaign seemed unprecedented. As editor in chief of Newsweek, do you now see young people as a new audience to market to, either online or in print?
JM: Sure. The politically engaged, and culturally engaged, are the people we hope the magazine reaches and interests, no matter how old they are. Whenever you have something that produces political excitement or cultural excitement you hope what you have to say resonates with anyone, and if they happen to be 21 years old, then great.
SL: With online journalism finding tremendous success, there is always talk of print media being a dying field. Where do you see print media going in the next few years?
JM: Previous generations of print people thought the radio was going to kill them and then the TV was going to kill them. It just requires adaptation and nimbleness and a commitment to good stories. The election project is a great example; there is a 50,000 word base, the oldest narrative form in human affairs, it’s like the Iliad. That principle is still at work. People say you don’t read long things online. Well, you read long things online if they’re good. Quality will win out.
SL: The marathon campaign is finally over. What now?
JM: Oh Lord, there is plenty to write about. There is the making of the administration. The issues that he will have to confront are stubborn. John Adams once said facts are stubborn things. So there is no shortage of topics.
Be the first to comment on this article!