Tina Brown, the founding editor of The Daily Beast and well known for her previous work at Vanity Fair and The New Yorker, announced her departure on Wednesday from the news online magazine. She will launch her own conference company, CNN Money and The New York Times reported.
Her new company "Tina Brown Live Media" is expected to host live events, as well as panel discussions and debates, and include her annual "Women in the World Summit," which she launched in 2010. The series, which has already honored Hillary Clinton and other female luminaries, was reportedly part of her severance package.
IAC, which took control of Newsweek last year, had shut down the print magazine, and The Daily Beast was sold to IBT Media in August. That deal ended the joint venture between The Daily Beast and Newsweek, which began in 2010. Jim Impoco was announced by IBT Media as the Editor-in-Chief of Newsweek on Thursday.
News reports surfaced in recent weeks that IAC, owned by media mogul Barry Diller, had no intention to renew Brown's contract which was had been due to expire in January.
In an email sent to her friends and contacts, Brown wrote, "I wanted you to be one of the first to hear my news, which is so very exciting for me. It's been a hell of a fun ride at the Beast these last five years, working with Barry and that amazing young team of Beasties and seasoned commentators," Buzzfeed reported.
Diller recently lamented about the changing nature of journalism when he said, "There are some one-off magazines that have no competition, essentially, in their field. Luxury magazines. Advertisers must advertise in them. But for a news magazine - which is a bit of an odd phrase today, news weekly, we have news instantly - it was not possible to print it any longer. So we said we will offer a digital product."
"I do not have great expectations," he said. "I wish I had not bought Newsweek. It was a mistake."
The Guardian's Michael Wolff wrote that even with Brown's savvy understanding of the changing media landscape, keeping The Daily Beast consistently profitable proved difficult.
"The Daily Beast was an effort not just to restore her stature and income, but to catch her rival Arianna Huffington, who was suddenly achieving prominence and wealth in the new world of blogging and online journalism," Wolff wrote. "Brown, famous for gulling rich men, convinced the otherwise savvy mogul, Barry Diller, whose company IAC managed a stable of digital properties, to support her in this enterprise."
Upon her exit, Brown tweeted "Sad 2 leave Beast but change is good. As Ben Bradlee likes to say 'nose down, ass up, push forward."
