Magazine a victim of dotcom meltdown, September 11 and costly redesign, ex-staffer believes
The closure of Asiaweek yesterday brought to an end a rollercoaster 26-year history.
Since its launch in December 1975, the magazine had survived a court battle with one of its former owners, the loss of regional offices and a 20 per cent pay cut during the economic downturn of the early 1990s.
But its repositioning from a general interest news magazine billed as 'Asia's voice in the world' to a business and technology-focused publication in May this year could have been the final nail in the coffin, former senior editors said.
Last year, it was selling 130,000 copies, giving it the highest circulation for an English-language magazine produced in Asia, they said yesterday.
Asiaweek was founded by an Indian journalist, T. J. S. George, and his New Zealand associate, Michael O'Neill, who dreamed of having a news magazine that saw the world from an Asian perspective.
'I definitely shared that vision of creating and doing a news magazine that reported and commented on Asian affairs, from a distinctly Asian perspective - that had always been the life and soul of Asiaweek,' said one media analyst and a senior editor at the magazine for a long time until his recent departure.
He said that when the magazine was being redesigned under new editor Dorinda Elliott late last year, many former staff had felt then that it was entering a very crowded field very late in the day. Another veteran editor said that since its redesign Asiaweek had been a victim of the dotcom meltdown, the September 11 terrorist attacks in the US and heavy investment in its redesign.
'There was investment in the magazine precisely to reformat it, relaunch it and maintain that format at the quality level that would be attractive to the market.'
Special reports that Asiaweek was known for and which drew controversy, such as Power 50 (a list of Asia's most powerful people) and Top Universities, were dropped under Ms Elliott.
Like any publication, it had teething problems. Under Mr George, Asiaweek was trying to find its feet. Reader's Digest took a majority stake for a while and in 1984 Time Inc took over majority ownership.
When Mr George retired to his native India (he is now chief editorial director of the Express Group of publications based in Bangalore), the no-nonsense O'Neill took over. 'It was a tense time,' one editor said.
In 1987, the magazine launched a Chinese-language sister weekly, Yazhou Zhoukan. Ming Pao group later bought this and recently a majority stake was bought by Tom.com.
'Here was a magazine that cut across all of Asia, was able to speak with authority to all of Asia,' another former editor said. 'It is sad because it was an icon of Asian journalism. One of the greatest legacies in Asian journalism is gone.'
