After more than eight weeks since an anonymous source told Fishbowl NY that Sidney Harman was trying to recruit Tina Brown to run Newsweek, the Wall Street Journal‘s Russel Adams is putting the story to rest. There won’t be any deal between Newsweek and The Daily Beast becuase the three main personalities — Ms. Brown, Mr. Harman and Barry Diller — couldn’t agree on how to run the two properties together.
Update 1:07 p.m.: A potential deal between Mr. Diller and Mr. Harman is not totally off, according to one senior staffer at Newsweek. The staffer told The Observer this afternoon that pulling out of talks, in this case, seems like a bargaining strategy on behalf of Mr. Diller and Ms. Brown.
Ms. Brown explained that the talks were finished on a post to The Beast today. “The engagement was fun but the pre-nup got too complex. We wish Newsweek all the best,” she wrote.
Everyone has also been wondering how Mr. Diller and Mr. Harman were planning to create synergy from two money-losing operations.
Ms. Brown told The Observer in September that she wasn’t serious about working on Newsweek, and that her focus is on The Daily Beast. “I’m not serious about Newsweek. I’m a Beast down to my toes,” she said.
