How much is an excerpt worth to a magazine? According to a recent New York Times story, the asking price these days is just $1; that's the amount the newspaper said Newsweek paid for an excerpt from Alan Greenspan's memoir, The Age of Turbulence. While that rock-bottom payout might be particularly low, the fee speaks to one of the most significant changes in the serial rights landscape: most publishers now look at excerpts as a way to drum up publicity, not profits.

“There was a time, many years ago, when serializations could command six figures. I think those days are over in the U.S.,” said Paul Bogaards, senior v-p and executive director of publicity at Knopf.

Not only did more magazines once exist to run more excerpts, but the excerpts themselves were once a more valued source of news. Now, with news broken online and embargoes cracked by zealous bloggers and tireless reporters, publishers have a harder time guaranteeing that their excerpts will contain fresh information.

“When did Time and Newsweek start to devalue [excerpts]? I'd say it coincides with the penetration of broadband culture,” Bogaards said. “There are now two values to serial. One is the cash value. But the second, and more significant, value is the readership that the periodical delivers.”

Certainly that's how Penguin thought about the Greenspan deal. Although Leigh Butler, Penguin Group senior v-p and director of sub-rights, refused to disclose any details of the deal, she said that the Greenspan excerpt was an overwhelming success. “Everyone walked away with what they wanted. We got 20 million readers and they got an interview with Alan Greenspan.”

Publishers are also struggling with recent changes to the magazine publishing schedule. Now that Time has switched its newsstand date from Monday (when Newsweek is out) to Friday, the number of options for certain deals has dropped. (Another complexity is coordinating TV coverage with print coverage, since 60 Minutes, the most-desired outlet for author interviews, airs on Sunday nights and, notoriously, demands first crack at any story it covers.)

Although Bogaards and Butler said that there is still money to be made in serial deals—Bogaards noted that certain big books can still command “mid five figures”—the business is more, as Butler put it, a “hybrid” with “publicity and rights handled completely in tandem.”

Sometimes, when the money isn't there for a first serial, a magazine can offer something almost as valuable. Louise Quayle, director of domestic rights at Doubleday Broadway, said ad swaps—where a magazine will give a publisher ad space in lieu of money—have become more popular in recent years.

On the magazine side, some think the current system makes more sense than the old one. “I never understood why we pay any money for book [excerpts],” said Time managing editor Richard Stengel, emphasizing how much promotion magazines offer through these deals. Acknowledging the difficulties of getting news-breaking excerpts into the magazine, Stengel said he judges book excerpts by the same standard as news pitches: he looks for things that will make for great stories.

The one thing Stengel would like to see change now is the amount of time he gets to decide on an excerpt. “The model now is [for publishers] to send the galley and say, 'Let me know in 10 days whether you want to excerpt something.' I think there ought to be a different paradigm. I always tell publishers to let me know what they're doing next year, so we can collaborate now.”