The Daily Beast Merges with Newsweek

By Richard Gibson
Nov 12 2010

The Daily Beast, an internet based news outlet, has announced today that they will merge with New York based Newsweek.

Newsweek, once owned by the Washington Post is now an independent news magazine. They announced the plan to merge with The Daily Beast several months ago but the deal was all but dead for a while.

The two companies were unable to come to terms on the agreement until last night.

The merger will be a first for the companies and will create a massive media outlet. The Newsweek system will be combined with that of The Daily Beast and they will be able to pump out news in print and online much faster.

The Daily Beast founder, Tina Brown, will act as editor-in-chief for both The Daily Beast and Newsweek, taking a dual role that was a major bargaining chip for the merger. Brown has formerly worked with The New Yorker and Vanity Fair before starting The Daily Beast.

Newsweek has suffered tremendous losses in the last several years. The decline of print based advertising has led to a similar fate for several magazines. The massive dip in profits led to the sale by the Washington Post and it was picked up by Sidney Harman.

Newsweek has often been known as an expensive magazine to produce. Unlike the other publications in the same genre, Newsweek is published on a weekly basis. The coupling with The Daily Beast will allow the magazine to control the headlines while still producing a weekly publication.