In a wide ranging interview with Lloyd Grove, former Washington Post executive editor Ben Bradlee expressed doubt that Newsweek will actually attract a serious buyer since it’s losing money.

From the Daily Beast

Bradlee—who, at age 88, is the Post Co.’s vice president at large—is less sanguine about the fate of Newsweek, which chief executive Donald Graham recently decided to disown and put on the block after 49 years in the corporate family. It was Bradlee, the magazine’s Washington bureau chief in 1961, who helped persuade Don’s father, Phil Graham, to acquire it from the Astor Foundation.

“I think it’s quite hard to predict that it will be bought,” Bradlee muses today. “I mean, it loses money, its prospects for making money are not immediately attractive to some investor—and I don’t know what will happen.”

Bradlee also expressed his dismay that the Post canceled his wife’s column after she wrote about her “dysfunctional” family”.

“Oh, Jesus Christ! That pissed me off, if you want the truth,” Bradlee confides. “What is that all about? That was somebody mad at Sally, I think. It was so far beyond its importance, it’s ridiculous—because Quinn [i.e. Sally] and I still attract a little extra publicity. Who knows why? I mean, it’s been years since any one of us had a major role in society around here. The dueling weddings! For 20 minutes, there was a dueling wedding date. It lasted 20 minutes and then everybody said, well, that’s silly, and agreed. So now one wedding is in October and the other one was in April.”

A savvy investor may not want much to do with the print side of Newsweek but may find value in the website particularly if they go back to covering news like they did before the magazine’s failed makeover.

If a buyer doesn’t step up though the Post may be forced to sell off the more valuable pieces and shutter the operation.

R.I.P. Newsweek.

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