Let’s call it a media “mercy killing”:
While the Newsweek/Daily Beast merger was expected to be wrapped up by late November or early December, it has been delayed and is not closing until later this month. . . .
That means Tina Brown, the Daily Beast editor-in-chief and former editor of The New Yorker and the much-hyped failure Talk Magazine, will have longer to wait before she can put her stamp on the newsweekly when she takes over the combined operations. . . .
One insider said the longer it takes for the NewsBeast deal to close, the greater the attrition among demoralized Newsweek staffers, who increasingly regard the deal not so much as a merger of equals but as a takeover.
“Morale at Newsweek? There is no morale because there is no one left,” said one source. “The purge is complete.”
Tina Brown wants staffers whose only loyalty is to her. Embittered veterans of Newsweek don’t fit that category.