Newsweek Merges with Daily Beast

R.S. McCain suggests it's The Weekly Newsbeast. Either way, don't expect much change from the far-left Obama-worshipping program of Jon Meacham, which hammered the final nails in the Newsweek coffin. See, The Observer, "Newsweek and Daily Beast to Merge, and at NYT, "Newsweek and Daily Beast Have a Deal." Plus, from Robin Abcarian, "Newsweek, Daily Beast Wedding to Merge Something Old, Something New":

The merger of Newsweek magazine and the Daily Beast website, which seemed to have fallen apart three weeks ago, is back on. The deal, announced Friday by The Daily Beast, is a little like a May-December marriage:

The 77-year-old Newsweek, recently purchased for a dollar by audio pioneer Sidney Harman, gets an infusion of energy and immediacy from the 2-year-old Beast and its irrepressible editor and co-founder Tina Brown.

The Daily Beast, part of media mogul Barry Diller's InterActive Corp., gets the gravitas, reach and stable platform of an old, though fading, media icon. Harman and Diller will co-own the new Newsweek Daily Beast Co.

And Brown, a journalistic trophy if ever there was one, will be editor-in-chief of both. She will become the first female editor of Newsweek.

In an interview Friday with National Public Radio, Brown said the Daily Beast will become the digital operation of Newsweek, while Newsweek will continue as a weekly newsmagazine.

"It means that the Daily Beast's terrific young vibrant team who've created this front line of news and adrenaline of the site, can also take that energy and have a different rhythm when they're producing magazine articles."

The only cloud on this rosy horizon: Neither is profitable. Advertisers have fled Newsweek, and circulation is down to about 1.5 million worldwide, from 3.1 million in 2007.

The symbolic price of $1 came with substantial debt; Newsweek's 2010 operating loss is expected to be $20 million, according to The Daily Beast, which aggressively covered the sale and in August published a leaked copy of the memorandum circulated to potential Newsweek buyers by its owner the Washington Post Co.

The future of Newsweek, said the Daily Beast at the time, "will depend on finding a near-genius editor and an inspired publisher and on their freedom and shared approach, as well as on their bankroll."

Diller, who owns about 30 websites, will not disclose how much the Daily Beast has cost him, but has said the site is working on generating premium rates from high-end advertisers who are unaccustomed to paying print-like prices on the Web.

The merger makes sense to me, although I'm wondering how these folks are going to make money.

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