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So what would you pay for a business that has never turned a profit and has lost a million dollars or more every year in its fourteen years of existence?
Clarity Media Group CEO Ryan McKibben announced today that the company had acquired The Weekly Standard magazine, which he characterized as “one of the most highly respected publications of public policy and political commentary in America.”
According to McKibben, Clarity Media Group intends to build on the editorial strengths of The Weekly Standard’s current staff and increase the magazine’s circulation and ad pages. “We have the highest regard for the editors and staff of The Weekly Standard, particularly founder William Kristol and executive editor Fred Barnes. The Weekly Standard’s content deals with the most critical public policy issues of our time, in an intelligent and compelling way.” said McKibben.
Other magazines (real ones, not wingnut workfare programs) are cutting back, print advertising revenues are in the toilet, and yet McKibben, who actually said "We have the highest regard for the editors and staff of The Weekly Standard, particularly founder William Kristol and executive editor Fred Barnes" without breaking into crazed laughter and smearing feces on himself, says he is going to increase circulation and ad pages.
O-kay.
Perhaps they’re using the Pajamas TV business model of giving away content for free (in much the same way that Clarity Media Group is already handing out free newspapers) in which case the purchase of the Weekly Standard probably makes sense in that "opposite of smart" way that we fail to understand. That would make this the best media buy since Eagle Publishing bought RedState just so they could access the royalty stream every time someone yells "Wolverine!".
You almost have to wonder how much Philip Anschutz would be willing to fork over to the South Park guys for the right to use Underpants Gnome Media. Probably like a billion gazillion dollars.
Profit!
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The Weekly Standard has been sinking, sinking, sinking ever since I relinquished my pre-Internet, Media Watchdog role, and stopped renewing at their Preferred Subscribers’ Rate-O-Desperation.
To keep the faithful frothed up and fapping, it’s cheap at the price.
More wingnut welfare? The hell you say. This has been the republican model of cap’talizzm for 30 years. Reminds me of that old Carson joke. What’s the easiest way to become a millionaire? Well, you take two million dollars from your trust fund, and then blow half.
Looks like Clarity Media Group needs a little more clarity. Or peyote.
There is, allegedly, a
racketpractice in some publishing circles where a representative of a magazine goes to the potential subject of an unflattering piece and offers to withhold the piece from publication in exchange for buying ad space. Given the apparent tendency of the Weakly Standard’s potential subjects to engage in exactly the sort of behavior they publicly decry (Ensign/Vitter 2012, bitchez!), this would seem to be a particularly fertile area for McKibben to explore for ad revenue expansion.It’s a feature, not a bug. Remember the “Healthy Forests Initiative”?
To be picky, no where did it actually say that money changed hands, only that he “acquired” the rag, presumably along with the outstanding bills. That said, the chances of the WS going from a wingnut welfare operation to profitable are on par with the possibility of Kristol admitting that he is wrong about everything.
Zero. Point. Zero.
Why, this is the greatest coup since St. Louis acquired the Rams! It’s hardly coincidental that the acquisition happened just days after K-Lo hit the streets. Sheer genius.
I assume that the profit is not direct but comes in the form of tax cuts and other corrupt perks from the gubmint, because of some sort of influence the publication puts on the voting public. Or at least that’s the theory, or something.
Free teabags with your subscription or paid ad! Get ‘em while they’re hot!
Clarity = Philip Anschutz, who’d never even notice a million a year.
It’ll be fun watching the pseudointellectuals at WS sharing their space with the Discovery Institute, James Dobson, & the rest of his projects.
Cost of running a wingnut online media outlet: millions of dollars.
Cost of running a wingnut print media outlet: tens of millions of dollars.
Benefit to your real businesses when the spineless mainstream press echoes all your wingnut-press memes and discredits Democratic policies and politicians for another generation: priceless.
OT,
According to Politico (yeah I know), word is that Froomkin is out at WaPo. No official word, thus no official reason, but a rational explanation is offered, based on DF’s history of thoughtcrimes against The Village.
Even Fish & Chips shops stopped using the Weakly Standard. The only thing left is bird cages but the HTML stains end up on their little rear-ends.
I glad someone could rescue this rag from having to compete in the free market they love so much.
If you come to us with a hundred dollar bill, we’re not going to give you 2000 nickels, unless that meets your change needs. We will give the change equal to the amount of money that you want change for.
The Weekly what now?
1) Buy Weekly Standard.
2) ????
3) Profit!
Yeah, something’s missing from that equation.
Is Clarity Media publicly owned? Do they have a website. The one I found is for a stereo company.
All so the Weekly Standard set can extol the virtues of free markets.
To think so many fellow Liberals still argue with me when I say most BigMedia outlets don’t give a
Kristol’srat’s ass about profit. The overwhelming majority of BigMedia exists today to push ideology on the electorate so that John Q. Nascar keeps voting against his own self-interest.That’s the triple truth, Ruth.
Update: in a late press release, Clarity Media announced that in the first of several cost-cutting initiatives at the Weekly Standard, Mr. Kristol has agreed be replaced as editor by the Pets.com sockpuppet.
Brilliant. Aren’t there still a lot of stock certificates at the bottom of outhouses that they can dig up and clean off?
That would be an adventure they could get Horrendo Revolver on. I can see it now….”Here we are at the bottom of the 4 holer that Al Capone had installed at his summer place, and what is that over in the corner?” “Ladies and Gentlemen, a Foox Noos rexclusive, we found something this time!”
The new owners can invest in Horrendo’s great find and throw the rest of their money in the hole too.
I can just see it now…. A month from now, the dispossessed K-Lo knocks on the door of Casa TBogg and makes T an offer he can’t refuse: Fork over the rest of L&TC’s education fund and maybe The Weekly Standard could be persuaded NOT to run that picture of the 3-way with Fenway and Beckham “doing the nasty” with the slutty poodle from up the street.
…At which point TBogg, exploiting the power of the Intertubes, will advertise the same pictures as a pay-per-view feature over on Red State, and make a killing; proving once again that Republican men are so desperate, they’ll fwap at anything.
All seriousness aside, the Right wing is trying desperately to reorganize,to wit, the WAPoO fired Froomkin today, leaving a cornucopia of right wing fuck tards to grace their pages.
They are more desperate than Jonah Goldberg at a strippers convention.
By ‘make up for it in volume’, I have to presume we’re talking about gas.
Which, btw, is measured in cubic feet.
I thought the weekly standard in GOP circles was to sleep with their staffer’s wives. Which would also be a money loser on pay-per-view, akin to watching a guy fishing with a short limp pole.
True Philip Anschutz story I got from a direct observer this week: they had planned on the grandkids coming to visit for a week, so they bought new, expensive bicycles for each kid. Kids weren’t interested, so they threw them away, still in the boxes.
And that, my friends, is a perfect example of why the rich are not like you or me, and they don’t give a rat’s ass about the planet or any of us who live upon it.
Do you leftwingers ever get tired of listening to your own bullshit??
Can you rightwingers make any money with yours?