Post by bob quarteroni on Aug 4, 2013 10:36:41 GMT -5
From New York Capital News":
Newsweek has been sold to IBT Media, publishers of International Business Times; will remain '100% digital'
By Tom McGeveran and Joe Pompeo
5:50 pm Aug. 3, 2013
Earlier today, IAC/InterActive reached a deal to sell Newsweek, which has been publishing since January as a digital-only version of the old magazine, to the owners of the International Business Times.
The announcement ends weeks of speculation about who might purchase what remains of the 80-year-old journalism brand, which was on the block for the second time in just three years.
Newsweek, the once-venerated weekly newsmagazine that at its height in the early '90s rivaled Time for readers and exercised tremendous influence on Washington politics, fell on hard times under the ownership of The Washington Post Company, and was sold to audio-equipment magnate Sidney Harman for a dollar in late 2010.
Harman subsequently entered a partnership with Washington Post Company board member and IAC chairman Barry Diller to merge Newsweek with IAC's Tina Brown-helmed digital-news company, The Daily Beast, but the merger was viewed as a failure. After Harman's death and the cessation of the print version of Newsweek at the end of 2012, Diller admitted in interviews that it had been a mistake to purchase the magazine and attempt to merge it with The Daily Beast in the first place.
In a private deal, none of the details of which are yet clear, the Newsweek brand is now the property of a digital start-up that has flown under the public radar while rapidly increasing its readership across the internet.
International Business Times, with its 10 national editions worldwide, published in several languages, is a relative newcomer: Launching in 2005 as the brainchild of Etienne Uzaac and Jonathan Davis, an economics grad student and a computer programmer, the property experienced rapid readership growth in 2010 and 2011, and in 2012 announced the formation of an editorial team led by Jeffrey Rothfeder, a former national editor for Bloomberg News.
IBT Media is as a rule a digital-only company, a fact underscored by quotes in a press release the company issued this afternoon.
"We are 100% digital with a track record of successfully growing online media properties," Davis said in the release. "The Newsweek brand is strong around the world and we believe there is significant potential to leverage that as well as enhance the editorial offering and continue to modernize the operations and approach. We are excited to add Newsweek to our portfolio of growing news brands and to pursuing the great opportunities ahead together."
Newsweek has been sold to IBT Media, publishers of International Business Times; will remain '100% digital'
By Tom McGeveran and Joe Pompeo
5:50 pm Aug. 3, 2013
Earlier today, IAC/InterActive reached a deal to sell Newsweek, which has been publishing since January as a digital-only version of the old magazine, to the owners of the International Business Times.
The announcement ends weeks of speculation about who might purchase what remains of the 80-year-old journalism brand, which was on the block for the second time in just three years.
Newsweek, the once-venerated weekly newsmagazine that at its height in the early '90s rivaled Time for readers and exercised tremendous influence on Washington politics, fell on hard times under the ownership of The Washington Post Company, and was sold to audio-equipment magnate Sidney Harman for a dollar in late 2010.
Harman subsequently entered a partnership with Washington Post Company board member and IAC chairman Barry Diller to merge Newsweek with IAC's Tina Brown-helmed digital-news company, The Daily Beast, but the merger was viewed as a failure. After Harman's death and the cessation of the print version of Newsweek at the end of 2012, Diller admitted in interviews that it had been a mistake to purchase the magazine and attempt to merge it with The Daily Beast in the first place.
In a private deal, none of the details of which are yet clear, the Newsweek brand is now the property of a digital start-up that has flown under the public radar while rapidly increasing its readership across the internet.
International Business Times, with its 10 national editions worldwide, published in several languages, is a relative newcomer: Launching in 2005 as the brainchild of Etienne Uzaac and Jonathan Davis, an economics grad student and a computer programmer, the property experienced rapid readership growth in 2010 and 2011, and in 2012 announced the formation of an editorial team led by Jeffrey Rothfeder, a former national editor for Bloomberg News.
IBT Media is as a rule a digital-only company, a fact underscored by quotes in a press release the company issued this afternoon.
"We are 100% digital with a track record of successfully growing online media properties," Davis said in the release. "The Newsweek brand is strong around the world and we believe there is significant potential to leverage that as well as enhance the editorial offering and continue to modernize the operations and approach. We are excited to add Newsweek to our portfolio of growing news brands and to pursuing the great opportunities ahead together."