Post date: Mar 07, 2014 8:41:31 PM
After failing to gain an audience online, Newsweek reappears on store shelves with a new owner and a new mission.
NEW YORK, NEW YORK, UNITED STATES (MARCH 7, 2014) (REUTERS) - Newsweek, the once-venerable news magazine, was back on store shelves on Friday (March 7) after a failed attempt in 2012 to move to an all-digital format.
The weekly news magazine made its paper re-launch with an exclusive front page story about a man it said was the founder of Bitcoin.Newsweek outed Satoshi Nakamoto, a name known to legions of bitcoin traders, practitioners and boosters around the world, as the reclusive multi-millionaire father of Bitcoin. Newsweek wrote that Nakamoto lived in Temple City, California, just east of Los Angeles.
However, after journalists camped outside the man's two-story house on Thursday morning, Nakamoto denied involvement with the digital currency. Newsweek said it stands by its story.
It's been a tumultuous decade for Newsweek, which is now owned by IBT Media.
In 2010, the Washington Post sold Newsweek to billionaire investor Sidney Harman, who then merged it with the website The Daily Beast - owned byIAC/InterActiveCorp. Famed editor Tina Brown took control and in 2012 announced that Newsweek would only publish online. When the online venture failed, Brown left.
IBT Media, a small digital publishing group, bought Newsweek in August 2013.
There are a few changes to the new print version of Newsweek, most notably the cost has risen to $7.99 (USD) an issue, up from the previous newsstand price of $4.99.
In published interviews, Newsweek's current editor-in-chief Jim Impoco saidNewsweek will be a niche product that will compete with high-end publications such as The Economist.