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Barry Diller Admits Buying Newsweek Was A Mistake (FishbowlNY)
The “Most Honest And Unintentionally Depressing Answer Of The Day” award goes to Barry Diller, IAC’s chairman. In an interview with Bloomberg TV, Diller admits that buying Newsweek was a mistake, and even adds that the all-digital NewsBeast isn’t likely to succeed: “For a news magazine, which is a bit of an odd phrase today, it was not possible to print it any longer. We said we will offer digital products. We have a very solid newsroom. We will see. I do not have great expectations. I wish I had not bought Newsweek. It was a mistake.” Bloomberg Businessweek IAC doesn’t officially disclose financial figures for the Newsweek/Daily Beast unit. A person with direct knowledge of the matter told Bloomberg News in July the business would probably lose as much as $22 million in 2012. The publisher cut editorial jobs in December in an effort to hold down expenses. continued…

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The “Most Honest And Unintentionally Depressing Answer Of The Day” award goes to Barry Diller, IAC’s chairman. In an interview with Bloomberg TV, Diller admits that buying Newsweek was a mistake, and even adds that the all-digital NewsBeast isn’t likely to succeed:

For a news magazine, which is a bit of an odd phrase today, it was not possible to print it any longer. We said we will offer digital products. We have a very solid newsroom. We will see. I do not have great expectations. I wish I had not bought Newsweek. It was a mistake.

Okay! Now, get to work Tina Brown and crew! Or don’t.

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Tunku Varadarajan

In a memo, Tina Brown said of Varadarajan, “We can all agree that he has done a stellar job as editor of the all-digital Newsweek, bringing the magazine so smartly into its new, exciting lease-of-life phase with his counterintuitive ideas, terrific cadre of writers week-after-week and the editorial collegiality that has made him such a pleasure to work with.”

For Brown’s full note, head over to Adweek.

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Dan Klaidman

“Danny is one of the best-sourced and most insightful reporters I’ve ever worked with,” wrote Tina Brown in a memo announcing the change. “We’re thrilled to be bringing his force to bear on the second Obama administration”

Brown’s full memo is below.

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Newsweek/The Daily Beast Company has renamed itself “NewsBeast.” Above is a photo from The Daily Beast’s Instagram, capturing the announcement from Tina Brown and Baba Shetty. Newsweek and The Daily Beast are keeping their names; this is only a change for the company.

We imagine Brown and Shetty decided to change to NewsBeast because it sounds cool, but we cannot confirm that as it is Friday and we’d rather just roll with an unverified, absurd guess.

New Career Opportunities Daily: The best jobs in media.

Newsweek

One of our favorite memories comes courtesy of Peter Goldman, a writer for the glossy from 1962 to 1988. He was at the New Weston Hotel bar having a “liquid lunch” when someone informed him and his co-worker that JFK had been shot:

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This is it. The final cover of the final issue of Newsweek, which hits newsstands tomorrow. We’re not sure if it’s ironic or fitting that the cover features a hashtag, but it is definitely humorous, in a sad sort of way.

New Career Opportunities Daily: The best jobs in media.

No, instead, you should buy it for the headline buried at the bottom right corner:

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New Career Opportunities Daily: The best jobs in media.

The full memo, obtained by Capital New York, is below.

Good luck to all you Newsweek staffers. This kind of thing, well, it just sucks.

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New Career Opportunities Daily: The best jobs in media.

It’s not surprising to hear her say that, especially since she also reveals it cost $42 million just to print Newsweek. If anything qualifies as being completely insane, that’s it.

The good news is that according to Brown, The Daily Beast is doing fantastic. She said that the site recently hit almost 20 million unique visitors, and with the albatross that is Newsweek shed, she’s finally able to just focus on content.

Click through for the entire interview with Brown, it’s well worth your time.

New Career Opportunities Daily: The best jobs in media.

1. Cover Battle: W or Fast Company, Octonber 18
2. What People Are Saying About Newsweek Ending Print Edition, October 18
3. Citing Restructuring, AMI Announces Layoffs (left), October 19
4. Newsweek Ends Print Edition, Cust Expected, October 18
5. The Newspaper Endorsements, October 22
6. Media Professor Says WPIX Should Trim 10 P.M. News to 30 Minutes, October 23

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“Our plan is to pro-actively communicate online and in print to current print consumers to present the option for the digital version,” a Newsweek/The Daily Beast spokesperson told The New York Post.

While we love the iPad experience, but getting readers to make the change is much easier said than done. People who subscribe to a magazine do so because they love the printed version. Without the magazine, they might be willing to venture to the web, but we doubt there will be many who want to be a tablet subscriber.

Time will tell if Newsweek can make its case for the tablet, but it seems more likely that those print subscribers will be lost forever; along with the magazine.

New Career Opportunities Daily: The best jobs in media.

Howard Fineman, The Huffington Post:

I tweeted earlier today that I was going to be “ruminating” about the death of Newsweek and someone suggested that I ‘ruminate’ instead on the decline of ”News with a capital ‘N.”Well I have, and I don’t believe for a minute that one equals the other. We want to do excellent reporting and writing; the best way to honor a place such as Newsweek is to seek to match what it did in both.

Kevin Lincoln, BuzzFeed:

Critics suggested that Brown had lost her touch, but in fact the game had changed, and she was trying to do the impossible. Brown realized that the media ecosystem favored viral images, and her covers spread on blogs and the social web. But they failed to carry the cover stories, or the magazine, with them.

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As with any shuttering, Tina Brown wrote in a memo that staff cuts are coming:

Newsweek is produced by a gifted and tireless team of professionals who have been offering brilliant work consistently throughout a tough period of ownership transition and media disruption. The inexorable move to an all-digital Newsweek comes with an unfortunate reality. Regrettably we anticipate staff reductions and the streamlining of our editorial and business operations both here in the United States and internationally. More details on the new organizational structure will be shared individually in the coming weeks and months.

No matter what you think about Newsweek, today is a sad day. The magazine is part of America’s rich magazine history, and it’s a shame to see it disappear. There’s sure to be more news about this closure as the day goes on, so we’ll keep you posted. Also, here’s a behind-the-scenes look at Newsweek/The Daily Beast’s HQ, which we imagine will be changing a bit now.

The full memo from Brown and Newsweek/The Daily Beast’s CEO Baba Shetty is below.

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1. Here is Why It’s Difficult to Defend Tina Brown and Newsweek, September 17
2. USA Today Says Its Logo is ‘Cool,‘ September 14
3. The New USA Today is Here, September 14
4. Quartz to Launch Sept. 24, September 19
5. Cover Battle: GQ or Complex, September 22
6. Cablevision Customers Not Blacked Out From Giants Thursday Nighter, September 19

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Photo credit: apple.copydesk.org

New Career Opportunities Daily: The best jobs in media.