Newsweek and Daily Beast to Merge (Smug foreigner Tina Brown to be named Editor)

Guess Newsweak’s continued circulation losses didn’t improve after Harmand bought it in August if they’re gonna turn the magazine into a website, hey? Same thing just happened to U.S. News & World Report a couple of weeks ago.

Two more lib rags now have the same status as a thousand gazillion other websites! Pretty soon this is gonna happen to the entire leftist media publishing apparatus: they’re all gonna be reduced to just some web sites competing with the other bazillion web sites. Guess that will leave only the Wall Street Journal as last publisher standing!

This is quite a turn from two weeks ago, when the deal floundered & was given up for dead.

Read New York Magazine’s excellent article about the three principals involved: Sidney Harmon, Tina Brown, and Barry Diller (!).

NEWSBOY
Looking for one last turn in the spotlight, 92-year-old Sidney Harman paid his dollar for Newsweek. And Tina Brown was all set to dance. So why did it fall apart?
http://nymag.com/news/media/69126/

Sidney Harmon is a 92-year old billionaire audiophile, whose late-in-life decision to purchase a national magazine took everyone by surprise, including his wife Jane Harmon. Barry Diller is a supreme deal maker. Tina Brown is, well, Tina Brown, who took over the New Yorker for awhile but left in less than perfect circumstances. All three of them are part of the “East Coast Elite”, or media elite if you will, who go to the same parties, and regard us Americans as “little people”.

I am actually charmed by a 92-year old taking this on. But, according to the October 25 2010 article referenced above, Sidney Harman shut the deal off because he did not have firing authority over Tina Brown, and felt outmanoeuvered by Barry Diller. Effectively, he would have little editorial input, which takes the fun out of it. At 92 I don’t think he was doing this as an investment vehicle. Which New York Mag estimates is going to lose $25 million next year!

OTOH there seem to be few editors who want to take this on, so Sidney Harmon’s options may have appeared limited. It will be interesting to see who has ultimate editorial power.

Finally, it remains a mystery to me why so many “main stream” media companies write only for the left / liberal consumer, even in the face of daunting losses. I guess it is “not their money”, but you would think that, after years of losing money tacking left, they might try writing articles that criticize democrats, and herald rising stars in the conservative and Republican camps.

You would think.

So let’s see who has editorial control: Tina Brown, or Sidney Harmon?

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