The one section of the staff box that has seen growth over the past 20 years is the area devoted to contributors. Contributors are appealing for a couple of reasons. One is that it can be a less expensive way to employ journalists, as contributors do not normally receive the same benefit packages as full-time employees. In addition, people can be brought in when need arises. Contributors allow magazines to staff up when issues arise and yet be relatively lean overall. Another appeal is that contributors often bring instant name recognition - and perhaps more authority - to the narrative.
In the magazine industry as a whole, working with freelancers or contributors is commonplace. In fact, many magazines in other genres don't have any staff writers. Editors simply have a stable of contributors they turn to when they need an assignment filled.
But news magazines for many years were the exception. Quick turn-around times that were set by breaking news made the freelance model largely unworkable for the Time or Newsweek. Today, however, news magazines have found a way to adapt this structure and use a mix of contributors and staff.
|
Time and Newsweek select years 1983 - 2003
|
 |
|
Project for Excellence in Journalism
|
Time's "contributors" are a hodge-podge of people, but many are specialists who work for other media organizations - well-known names, some from other Time Warner companies. Some of the names on Time's list include CNN's medical editor, Dr. Sanjay Gupta; a CNN senior analyst, Jeff Greenfield, cartoonist Gary Trudeau and newspaper columnist Molly Ivins. Newsweek's approach is different. Its smaller group of "contributing editors" is largely a mix of the magazine's columnists and former staffers who have been moved into the contributors category. Some of the names on Newsweek's list include columnists George Will and Jane Bryant Quinn as well as a former religion writer, Ken Woodward, and Washington correspondent Eleanor Clift.
As staff cuts, specialization and planned issues increase at the big news magazines, the contributors lists are likely to increase as well. They are easier to add financially than staffers and their instant expertise and name recognition they bring fits in with the news magazines' continuing move away from being heavily reported and anonymously written.
In fact, it is likely that all three trends will continue in the coming years as computers and the Internet make people power less needed in the publication of the news magazines - particularly in their current form. News magazines may never be like other types of books, where freelancers and contributors dominate. But as time goes by, they will likely move more and more in that direction