The weekly news magazine's worldwide publisher, Gregory Osberg, said that the recovery currently underway is expected to continue well into 2004. "The US economy appears to be firming. It'll be a gradual rather than a dramatic bounce back. We'll also be getting a boost next year from the American presidential election and the Olympics in Greece - two events which are historically good for the magazine publishing business," Osberg said.
Newsweek director of international sales, Rhona Murphy, said: "Airline and hotel advertising is coming back very strongly. We should be at normal or above normal spend levels for these categories in the final quarter."
She added that the automobile and finance sectors, though not as hard hit as their hospitality counterpart, were also spending more.
Osberg said that he was expecting a bumper year-end issue mainly because of the Who's next special report, which "focuses on the people who will impact our lives in the coming year".
"We launched the Who's next franchise last year with US and international versions and they were exceedingly well received by our readers.
"One of our points of differentiation is that while the competition is looking back honouring people who have impacted the world in the past, we are forward looking, which is important in an environment which is fast changing," Osberg said.