by Hauwa Gambo

Yes, we know – the news magazine format is now out-moded, and sales have decreased astronomically, still is the reputation-for-talkability trade-off strategy of Time and Newsweek really working?

For a while, it was just Newsweek as many saw Tina Brown struggling to make a struggling international brand profitable again. Then she printed her ‘Diana’ cover and all of a sudden, Newsweek was in the news, but was it for the right reason? Now, it’s “game on” and a free for all as magazines scramble all over each other to produce the next profitable cover

Exceprts from this New York Post piece by Keith J. Kelly helps put the trend in perspective:

Time Magazine, which is dealing with an ad slump and a dip in newsstand sales, has ignited a raging Internet controversy with its provocative cover shot of a hot, blonde mom breast-feeding her 3-year-old son. The May 21 issue that started hitting newsstands just in time for Mother’s Day is meant to illustrate a story by Kate Pickert about the “attachment parenting” philosophy popularized by Dr. William Sears, a retired pediatrician who wrote the best-selling tome “The Baby Book.” Attachment parenting, which encourages mom to be with their kids as much as possible, has come under attack in the past year from books such as Amy Chua’s “Battle Hymn of the Tiger Mother.”

“Buy our magazine. We’ll do anything,” wrote one blogger on Yahoo! in response to the cover treatment. Others objected to the headline, “Are You Mom Enough?” %E