Less than eight hours after the Observer broke the news that Newsweek was set to merge with The Daily Beast, Tina Brown made the official announcement with a late night blog post.
“Some weddings take longer to plan than others,” Brown wrote.
Talks between Newsweek and The Daily Beast began late this summer. According to Brown, the extended flirtation between the two publications came to an end “with a coffee-mug toast between all parties Tuesday evening.” The deal was finalized Thursday night.
The Washington Post Co. sold Newsweek to Sidney Harman for $1 in August. As part of the deal, Harman assumed the struggling newsweekly’s “tens of millions of dollars” of debt. The joint venture, which will be called The Newsweek Daily Beast Company, will be shared equally between Harman and Barry Diller’s IAC/InterActive Corp., which owns The Daily Beast.
Brown will be editor-in-chief of both Newsweek and The Daily Beast.
“Working at the warp-speed of a 24/7 news operation, we now add the versatility of being able to develop ideas and investigations that require a different narrative pace suited to the medium of print,” Brown wrote.
