"It was a hard decision for me to make because newsprint is in my veins and I have worked here for almost three decades," Mr. Kurtz told The Observer on the phone this afternoon. "But once I was able to clear that psychological hurdle I liked a lot of what Tina had to say and the role that she laid out for me."  

Mr. Kurtz has worked at the Post since 1981 in a number of roles, most recently as a media columnist. He said that he "essentially grew up" at the newspaper.

We asked Mr. Kurtz if it felt like selling-out to leave the Post for a news website. "I don't know why anyone would say that," he said. "What I like about The Daily Beast is that it's a very solid journalistic enterprise. It practices journalism without paper. I'm spending more and more of my time online."

"In the case of The Daily Beast, I have no hesitation because the quality of the contributors are extremely high and there are good editors overseeing what they do," Mr. Kurtz added. He also noted that the site pays its contributors and that is important to him as a professional journalist.  

Mr. Kurtz said that he was excited by the chance to help craft Washington Coverage at The Beast, which turns two-years-old tomorrow. "At the moment there are a number of excellent Washington contributors, and I am going to write and report at my usual breakneck pace. But over time we hope to expand the bureau and I'd very much like to be a part of that," Mr. Kurtz said. "Watch that space."

The Observer asked Mr. Kurtz if his move to The Beast had anything to do with a potential deal between Newsweek owner Sidney Harman and Barry Diller. "The short answer is no," Mr. Kurtz said. "I had no idea what will happen at Newsweek and I made my decision based on wanting to work for The Daily Beast. Period."

zturner@observer.com / @zekeft

The Daily Beast is coming up on its second anniversary tomorrow. Mr. Kurtz wrote about the site when it launched in 2008. "It is an intriguing experiment, and not just for the 54-year-old Brown," Mr. Kurtz wrote. "The Web is packed with liberal sites, conservative sites and destinations that link to every other site on the planet. Brown is promoting herself as a tastemaker-in-chief, serving up such features as 'Cheat Sheet,' touting must-reads, and 'Buzz Board,' in which famous people recommend everything from books to boots."

Mr. Kurtz will keep his CNN Sunday show Reliable Sources. Ms. Brown was a guest on the show last month to talk about Glenn Beck and how the media is covering President Obama.

"There’s one thing that I get paid for at the Post is scoops. If you’re gonna give scoops to someone else, you’re taking food off my kids’ table," Mr. Kelly said.

Accuracy is important, too, but sometimes there isn't time to get the story totally right. “You’re getting paid to be right but nobody’s right 100 percent of the time," Mr. Kelly said. "I think they realize that none of the stories are personal.”

Mr. Kelly said that if somebody gives a scoop to one of his competitors, he might print unsubstantiated rumors in his column to get back at them (he also said being a media reporter in New York is like being a police officer in a small town).

“One time, there was somebody giving what I call the gift-wrapped scoop to one of my friendly rivals at a broadsheet paper. and I said, ‘Look, I was on that story and you gave it to them. Here’s what i’m going to do. Every story from now on, every cockamamie rumor that comes out of your company is going in my paper. I’ll call you at the end of the day and say you deny the report...and then you deal with the consequences.”

Sometimes News Corp. politics can also ruin a scoop. In The New York Times' post last night about Michael Wolff taking over e5 Global Media's Adweek Media Group, Tim Arango noted that Mr. Kelly had the same story about Mr. Wolff last week. But Mr. Kelly's story never ran, probably because of tensions between Mr. Wolff (author of The Man Who Owns the News) and Rupert Murdoch.

Now media reporters from the business desk (Tim Arango, Richard Perez-Pena and Brian Stelter, et al) on the second floor, and the culture department on the fourth will be packing up their things to work together in a new workspace on the third floor of the Times Building.

Bruce Headlam, the media editor for the business department, will run the day-to-day operations of the new mini-department, while business editor Larry Ingrassia and culture edtior Sam Sifton wil oversee the operation.

The move was acknowledged in a memo today as an effort to lessen red tape encumbering reporters from each of the two desks pursuing stories in the same beat.

Here's the memo from Ingrassia and Sifton: