Newsweek and The Daily Beast Will Not Be Merging

Any potential partnership between Newsweek and The Daily Beast is now dead in the water. On her site, The Daily Beast’s Tina Brown squashed the rumors she helped stoke earlier this month.

In a previous post, I mentioned that we were having some interesting discussions with the new ownership of Newsweek about possibly doing something together. The talks were indeed intriguing, but in the end we have decided not to pursue them further.

The Wrap has Brown’s memo to staff:

Hi guys,

There’s a report on the WSJ now saying we have decided not to go forward in any more conversations with Newsweek. The engagement was fun but the pre-nup got too complex. We wish Newsweek all the best. The Daily Beast is on a tear and any partnership we think about has to build on that incredible growth. Onward and upwards!

Too bad. We would have been curious to see what Brown could have done for Newsweek. One has to wonder what this means for the fate of the struggling mag, who’s lost most of its major talent in the last few months.

Previously on FBLA: Tina Brown Confirms ‘The Daily Beast’ Talks With ‘Newsweek’

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