NewsBeast Merger Completed

Newsweek and The Daily Beast have finally completed their merger, a little more than two months after it was announced.
 
The combined company will be called The Newsweek/Daily Beast Co., and as expected all along, the Beast will be in charge, with Tina Brown, a founder of the Beast, running the editorial operation and Stephen Colvin, its former president, serving as CEO.
 
Sidney Harman, who was Newsweek’s owner, will be executive chairman of the company. He and Barry Diller, chairman of Beast-backer IAC, will be directors.
 
With the deal itself completed, more practical concerns lie ahead, including combining the two staffs at IAC’s West Side headquarters and figuring out how to make the two money-losing properties stronger. Newsweek alone lost $30 million in 2009 before The Washington Post Co. sold it to Harman.