Dev Pragad and Newsweek’s Uphill Climb in 2023

Mark Twain famously said, “the reports of my death are greatly exaggerated.”

And so, today, is Newsweek. In point of fact, Newsweek today is stronger, from

both from an editorial and business standpoint, than it’s been in decades.

By September 2021, Dev Pragad and the Newsweek leadership team had

completed a successful turnaround of the business and, with about 100 million

readers across all platforms. Newsweek now had the largest audience in its

history.

The iconic brand has been providing, for more than 80 years, a unique perspective

on world affairs, and context to the most important events in global news. Today,

Newsweek’s print edition is available in 68 countries and territories, while round-

the-clock coverage on the latest breaking world news can be found on a robust

digital platform at newsweek.com.

More specifically, in 2021 Newsweek’s website reached 100 million unique

monthly impressions, up from seven million in 2017. The company is now debt

free and profitable, with projected revenue growth of 20% to 30% this year.

What has happened? The Newsweek story is nothing less than a textbook case of

an extraordinary business turn-around. So says a case study published by Harvard

University, late last year.

In a way, Newsweek’s remarkable turnaround channels the magazine’s original

intent, back when it was founded, in 1933. Its stated editorial foundation at the

time was to clarify the divergent opinions around important news. And that it

did, through various ownerships, right up to the ‘90s, when its US circulation

reached 60 million, literally a quarter of the American population.

Then came the buzz-saw of the Internet, which left the print publication, and

most of its competitors, reeling from the technological changes that created

totally new paradigms for news dissemination.

Dev Pragad was, it turns out, a perfect fit for the new media landscape that the

brand found itself in. A graduate of King’s College London with a Bachelor of

Engineering in computer science/electronics and a Ph.D. in the mobile Internet,

Dev rose to the helm of the enterprise in September 2018.

“Newsweek’s rise over the years is a fascinating story,” says Dev Pragad. “I

thought we could build on that. But to do it, we had to restart the brand. And

that was a tremendous, and tremendously exciting, challenge.

But that vision wasn’t enough, in and of itself. It was critical that we leverage

our people and launch a digital transformation, and do these things in a way that

was totally transparent. I found this very energizing,” Dev says.

That led to a new, three-part approach, focusing on purpose, opportunity and

change. “Purpose is critical,” Pragad notes. “Because, without a purpose,

without a mission, you don’t have a mechanism to galvanize the organization.”

“But first came an acceptance of reality,” Dev continues. And that led to an

initiative to educate writers on the fact that there’s no such thing as a great

story… if nobody reads it. Journalists needed to buy into the reality that data

must drive their editorial decisions. For example, they had to understand which

stories found an audience on the major digital platforms like Google, Facebook

and Apple News, and which did not.

“What we did next was try to capture that reality in something we called ‘the

Newsweek way.’” Says Pragad, “This is very useful. Because it captures our key

values – integrity, innovation, ambition and equality. And we can then overlay

those values on how we operate – how we hold ourselves accountable, to

ourselves, our readers, our partners and our clients.

“Opportunity,” he notes. “You can find it all around you. The challenge is to pick

wisely, and then optimize what you pick. What we decided to do was seek out

partnerships. And we were delighted that many Tier-1 companies were very

willing to work with us…” partners like Google, Engine Media and Statista.

For example, with Statista, Newsweek was able to garner instant recognition and

credibility, when it launched a series of rankings, starting with the best hospitals

in the U.S. “And, in doing so, we were also able to reinforce our purpose to

society,” Dev Pragad notes.

A second pivotal partnership was with Google Cloud, which helped develop an

industry-leading AI recommendation engine. Applying that technology led to a

revolution in how stories could be personalized for readers… and that led directly

to Newsweek increasing its click-through rates by 50-75% between early 2020 and

August 2021.

The breakthrough work with Google came from implementation of an objective

and key results (OKR) framework, which Dev Pragad also introduced.

An OKR framework is a way to get teams to set ambitious, measurable goals, and

outline what results these goals would achieve. In so doing, OKRs also push an

organization to collaborate, across the entire enterprise.

Dev’s pilot OKR was for Newsweek’s Q4 2020 ad revenue. He initially set a goal of

35% of total ad revenue for Q4, compared to Q4 of 2019. But he raised the target

to 50%... and Newsweek managed to exceed the stretch goal… and that

convinced Pragad to set even more ambitious goals for 2021.

Then there’s change. “Change is inevitable,” Dev notes. “What we had to do at

Newsweek was ensure that we embrace change, not fight it. We had to

acknowledge the disruption in our business, and work toward a new dynamic, a

digital-first company.”

Embracing change starts with each and every one of us, Dev says today,

“Everyone must commit to self-improvement. When you do that, it becomes a

core value. And the results become self-evident.”

Asked about inspiring leaders to model behavior after, Dev points to Microsoft

CEO Satya Nadella. “His value system, and his ability to transfer those values to

his entire organization – I think it’s a remarkable story about how a large and

complex organization can be transformed and energized.”

Harvard University looks to the next chapter of the Newsweek story this way.

“The focus for 2022 (is) continuing the growth rate experienced in 2021 and,

more importantly, focusing on expanding the impact of Newsweek stories. How

do we measure and monitor our output for continuous improvement? How do

we strategically assign investment to increase our influence? How do we build

and scale the teams that will deliver impact journalism and strengthen brand

loyalty?”

A Harvard Business School case study notes those initiatives grow out of Dev

Pragad’s overarching vision, that Newsweek should play a positive and vital role in

America’s public culture, society and discourse.

It sounds a lot like 1933, updated to very different times. Change will do that to

you.