Yet another big name has abandoned the sold Newsweek ship — and the name they’re losing is a really big one. And where he is landing is even more significant.
The name: Newsweek’s former Senior Washington Correspondent and Columnist Howard Fineman, one of the print journalists who also successfully became a leading political analyist talking head on cable television. Where he is landing: as the new Senior Political editor of The Huffington Post — perhaps the most symbolic sign now of a kind of generational media shift, where print media seemingly resides in a convalescent home trying to group, re-energize and survive while the digital media grows, blossoms and if not totally matures…matures in a perceptible way.
Here’s The Huffington Post’s complete press release:
The Huffington Post (“HuffPost”) a leading social news and opinion site, announces today that Howard Fineman, award-winning Newsweek reporter and MSNBC News Analyst, has been named Senior Political Editor at The Huffington Post. In this new position, Fineman will cover national politics for The Huffington Post while continuing to report and offer analysis for MSNBC. He will also work closely with the DC-based HuffPost politics team. Huffington Post co-founder and editor-in-chief Arianna Huffington made the announcement
“We’re thrilled to welcome Howard Fineman, one of the nation’s leading political reporters, to our team,” said Arianna Huffington. “I have long admired Howard’s coverage of politics, including his astute analysis of all the key players and his understanding of history, which helps put today’s headlines in context. With his wealth of experience — he’s interviewed every major presidential candidate since 1985 — he will enrich our coverage and be an invaluable resource for our reporters and editors.”
Said Howard Fineman: “The digital world is where the action is in my line of work, and The Huffington Post is at the center of the new paradigm. It’s the best and liveliest online newspaper. But the site also is something entirely new: a mix of journalism as we know (and knew it) and social-networking and crowd-sourcing — all of which are shaping the news business in unpredictable yet exciting ways. I look forward to working with the sharp and hard-working editors and reporters at HuffPost, along with their dynamic and pioneering leader, Arianna Huffington.”
One of the nation’s leading political reporters and commentators, Howard Fineman was Newsweek Magazine’s Senior Washington Correspondent and Columnist, and will remain an NBC and MSNBC News Analyst. His columns appeared regularly in Newsweek and on Newsweek.com, and MSNBC.com. He is a regular contributor to MSNBC’s “Hardball with Chris Matthews, “Countdown with Keith Olbermann” and “The Rachel Maddow Show,” and also contributes reports to the “Today” show on the NBC network.
Fineman has received or shared in numerous awards for his work in Newsweek, including two National Magazine Awards, and awards from the American Bar Association and the Headline Club of New York. His book on politics, The Thirteen American Arguments, was a national bestseller in 2008, and was released in paperback by Random House in 2009. His work has also been published in The New York Times,
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Why is this important?
1. Fineman was one of the most recognizable Newsweek “brands.”
2. Newsweek has lost some other “name brands” that were recognizable to people who didn’t even read the magazine. One was Fareed Zakaria who left the magazine to continue his starring role on CNN and move over to Newsweek’s longtime rival, Time Magazine.
3. Fineman like most high-profile reporters/analysists/editor had his share of partisans on both sides who don’t like him (to some partisans unless a reporter or analyists is deliverling political PR in the style of a left or right talk show host to their side they are the enemy since facts mean less than scoring points). But his sourcing is excellent, he knows the print and broadcast media and he knows how to put together not just a compelling analysis but continue a valid political narrative.
4. This is a bad sign for Newsweek which so far has not been able to attract sufficient new, highly respected names to offset the big losses.
5. It’s a further sign of how the Huffington Post has shifted from being an opinion site to one that increasingly offers new political reporting.
6. It is highly symbolic — about the decline of 20th century media and the rise of 21st century media.
One little personal note. I was Colgate ’72 and Fineman was a year or two ahead of me. White at Colgate I wrote for the conservative campus newspaper, and then the liberal one — and Fineman was one of its editors. I later switched back to the conservative one. On May 4, 1970 the Ohio National Guard opened fire on students at Kent State, killing four students. There was a meeting of all students at my living facility in the Shepardson House cafeteria shortly aftewards, called by a student campus anti-war protester who said:”They’re killing kids now…” And there, in the corner, with a notebook, quietly taking notes was Howard Fineman. Even before he joined Newsweek, my image of serious student journalism wasn’t colored by the stories and opinion pieces I had done but of a student named Howard Fineman, quietly taking notes as he observed…professional…serious..and not into game playing.
Joe Gandelman is a former fulltime journalist who freelanced in India, Spain, Bangladesh and Cypress writing for publications such as the Christian Science Monitor and Newsweek. He also did radio reports from Madrid for NPR’s All Things Considered. He has worked on two U.S. newspapers and quit the news biz in 1990 to go into entertainment. He also has written for The Week and several online publications, did a column for Cagle Cartoons Syndicate and has appeared on CNN.