Description
Newsweek is an American weekly news magazine. It is co-owned by Dev Pragad, its president and CEO, and Johnathan Davis, who has no operational role; each owning 50%. Founded as a weekly print magazine in 1933, it was widely distributed during the 20th century, and had many notable editors-in-chief. The magazine was acquired by The Washington Post Company in 1961, and remained under its ownership until 2010.
Revenue declines prompted The Washington Post Company to sell it, in August 2010, to the audio pioneer Sidney Harman for a purchase price of one dollar and an assumption of the magazine's liabilities. Later that year, Newsweek merged with the news and opinion website The Daily Beast, forming The Newsweek Daily Beast Company. Newsweek was jointly owned by the estate of Harman and the diversified American media and Internet company IAC. Newsweek continued to experience financial difficulties, which led to the cessation of print publication and a transition to an all-digital format at the end of 2012.
In 2013, IBT Media acquired Newsweek from IAC; the acquisition included the Newsweek brand and its online publication, but did not include The Daily Beast. IBT Media, which also owns the International Business Times, rebranded itself as Newsweek Media Group, and in 2014, relaunched Newsweek in both print and digital form.
In 2018, IBT Media split into two companies, Newsweek Publishing and IBT Media. The split was accomplished one day before the District Attorney of Manhattan indicted Etienne Uzac, the co-owner of IBT Media, on fraud charges.
Under Newsweek's current co-owner and CEO, Dev Pragad, it is both profitable, with revenue of $60 million, and also growing: between May 2019 and May 2022, its monthly unique visitors increased from about 30 million to 48 million, according to Comscore.
