• by Erik Sass , September 4, 2007

It hasn't been a kind six months for America's three best-known newsweeklies. A major redesign and a change in its distribution schedule have failed to pump up Time; Newsweek is continuing a genteel decline in ad pages and readership; and in the last two years, U.S. News & World Report has seen an alarming decline in total readership. For competitors like The Week and The Economist, however, it's good news.

Time took it on the chin in the first six months of 2007. According to the Audit Bureau of Circulations, the magazine's newsstand sales fell 13.6% to 103,204, contributing to a total circulation decline of 17.1%. While the magazine slashed its rate base by about 19% in January to 3.25 million, the declining newsstand sales--a separate indicator of popularity--suggest trouble is afoot. Separate figures from Mediamark Research Inc. have Time's total average readership declining from 22.6 million in spring 2005 to 21.6 million in spring 2007--a falloff of 4.5%.

Newsweek is faring about the same, with a 9.3% decline in newsstand sales since the first half of 2006, according to ABC, to 100,902--and a 9% drop in readership since spring 2005, from 20.26 million to 18.4 million, according to MRI. Both magazines experienced slight declines in ad pages in the first six months of 2007, compared to 2006, according to the Publishers Information Bureau.

U.S. News is also under pressure--with a 6% decline in newsstand sales in the first half of 2007, compared to 2006, and an almost 20% decline in total readership between spring 2005 and spring 2007, according to MRI (from 11.5 million to 9.2 million). However, compared to the first half of 2006, ad pages are up 5.8%.

All this can only spell good news for The Economist and The Week, venerable European publications that have made big inroads in America over the last decade. According to ABC, The Economist's newsstand sales jumped 10.6% in the first half of 2007 to 60,877, while subscriptions grew 16.1% to 694,345. In this period, ad pages grew 13.3% to 1201.

The Week is also cleaning up, with a 12% increase in subscriptions to 493,560. Ad pages in the first half of 2007 rose 11.4% to 282.