Ailing Newsweek to merge with Daily Beast Web site

WASHINGTON - After on-again-off-again talks, US Newsweek magazine and the Daily Beast Web site would reportedly announce their merger on Friday.

The Washington Post quoted people with knowledge of the agreement as saying, that this move could give the ailing newsmagazine some new-media energy and the fledgling Web site a modicum of old-media credibility.

News of the deal comes a month after both sides walked away from merger negotiations, blaming each other for failing to compromise.

The deal means that Tina Brown, former editor of The New Yorker and Vanity Fair and founding editor of The Daily Beast, will now become the top editor at Newsweek.

As of now, it is unclear what the new Daily Beast-Newsweek entity would be called, though the authorities are combining the names of the two for some potential names, the paper said. (ANI)