UPDATE: Howie Kurtz Keeps CNN Job; Will Address Being Dropped From Daily Beast This Weekend

By DOMINIC PATTEN | Friday May 3, 2013 @ 9:25am PDT

UPDATE 9:25 AM: He’s out at the Daily Beast but CNN has decided not to cut Howard Kurtz loose for his sloppy reporting about NBA player Jason Collins’ coming out. “There has been no status change with Howard Kurtz, he remains the host of Reliable Sources.  He will address this issue on the program this weekend,” a CNN spokesperson said today. No word if the Jeff Zucker-run news network will be renewing Kurtz’s contract as the long time host of the Sunday media show when it is up.

1st UPDATE, THURSDAY PM: Howard Kurtz’s job problems today may not be over. I have learned that CNN is reviewing what happened at the Daily Beast and its Reliable Sources host’s sloppy reporting on NBA player Jason Collins. “Some things have been raised this week and CNN wants to review the situation,” a CNN insider tells me about the cable news network’s relationship with its long time Sunday media show host after the Daily Beast dumped him Thursday. No word yet if that means Kurtz is canned at CNN but the fact that such a discussion is occurring can’t be a good sign.

PREVIOUSLY 1:42 PM: Media critic/reporter Howie Kurtz is the host of CNN’s Reliable Sources but he was fired today from his other gig at The Daily Beast for sloppy reporting on pro basketball player Jason Collin’s coming out. “@TheDailyBeast & @HowardKurtz have parted company… We wish him well,” tweeted Editor-in-Chief Tina Brown. At issue was that Kurtz reported wrongly that Collins hadn’t made public he was once engaged to a woman – when he had. The Daily Beast retracted the story on Wednesday. This didn’t seem to rise to the level of a firing offence. According to Kurtz tweets“This was in the works for some time… But as we began to move in different directions, both sides agreed it was best to part company.” Kurtz had been the Washington Post media critic since 1990 but took a buy-out in 2010. He has done double duty on the CNN media show since 1998. In the past Kurtz has been criticized for writing about CNN and hosting the show. As of right now, sources tell me that Kurtz’s CNN gig is secure at the newly Jeff Zucker-run network.

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Newsweek To End Print Edition

By DAVID LIEBERMAN, Executive Editor | Thursday October 18, 2012 @ 5:30am PDT

Tina Brown, who edits Newsweek and The Daily Beast, announced this morning that the nearly 80-year-old weekly newsmagazine will go all-digital. The December 31 edition will be the last one in print. Its online successor, to be called Newsweek Global, will offer a single, subscription-based international edition designed for e-readers, tablets and the Web and targeted to opinion leaders. Even so, Brown and Newsweek Daily Beast CEO Baba Shetty say that they “anticipate staff reductions and the streamlining of our editorial and business operations both here in the U.S. and internationally.” The execs say that they are “transitioning Newsweek, not saying goodbye to it,” adding that they “remain committed to Newsweek and to the journalism that it represents. This decision is not about the quality of the brand or the journalism—that is as powerful as ever. It is about the challenging economics of print publishing and distribution.” Read More »

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R.I.P. Sidney Harman

By MIKE FLEMING JR | Wednesday April 13, 2011 @ 7:07am PDT
Mike Fleming

Sidney Harman has died. The 93-year-old entrepreneur, who kept Newsweek afloat by buying the faltering magazine from the Washington Post Co for $1 and then merging it with IAC and Tina Brown’s website The Daily Beast, died Tuesday evening. He … Read More »

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Newsweek & Daily Beast Announce Merger

This, after talks were abandoned just recently. The new venture will be called the Newsweek Daily Beast. Tonight, Tina Brown, Daily Beast’s co-founder, announced the merger — “some weddings take longer to plan than others” — and will top edit. The Daily … Read More »

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Daily Beast And Newsweek Talks Fall Apart

The Wall Street Journal is reporting that talks between The Daily Beast and Newsweek have cratered. The two companies had been discussing a deal to make Tina Brown editor of Newsweek. But details couldn’t be worked out surrounding the division of power between Brown, new Newsweek owner Sidney Harman, and Barry Diller, who’s chairman … Read More »

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