The New 'Newsweek'

It’s here! It’s Tina Brown’s Newsweek! There it is, between the huge amount of word-free space and a 2/3rds of a page devoted to a photograph of a shoe: Harvey Weinstein and Hillary Clinton as hot topics, with editorial buttressing from the minds of Larry Summers and the recently unemployed Kathleen Parker and Joanne Lipman. Mmm, it’s like soaking in a nice warm bath of a comfortable yesterday — a happy, mature place of sort-of kind-of powerful people (the kind of people who have “power” at Michael’s restaurant, or certain overpriced bistros in D.C.) explaining things simply and calmly (and sometimes correctly), with the occasional stroppy quote on the big proposition of last week. They each get to indulge in their favorite tics: Harvey gets to confess his “mistakes” which, in true job interview fashion, turn out to be his “strengths and learning experiences.” Lipman gets to apolitically write about an atomic energy CEO, who is “hard-charging” and “a media darling.” Larry Summers gets to not answer some good questions. I like the gumption behind all this! I am impressed that it directly addresses 44-year-olds — almost any other magazine launch would be gunning for 32-year-olds. The idea of making it a shiny weird semi-luxe thing (a giant picture of a shoe!) is probably a very good business decision. This is going to electrify the waiting rooms of dentists all over Scarsdale.