March 28, 2024

Diller Gives Bleak Assessment of Newsweek

Barry Diller, whose IAC/InterActiveCorp decided last year to turn Newsweek into a digital-only publication, on Monday gave a stark assessment of its chances to succeed.

“I don’t have great expectations,” Mr. Diller told Bloomberg TV at the Milken Global Conference in Beverly Hills, Calif. “I wish I hadn’t bought Newsweek. It was a mistake.”

He prefaced his comment by trying to be hopeful, “We’ve got a very, very, very solid newsroom and we’ll see.”

IAC’s involvement with Newsweek began in 2010, when it entered a partnership with Sidney Harman, the stereo mogul, who bought Newsweek for $1 from the Washington Post Company. The merger late that year between Newsweek and The Daily Beast, the IAC Web site edited by Tina Brown, was seen as a bold stroke at the time, returning Ms. Brown to magazine editing.

Shortly thereafter, the 92-year-old Mr. Harman died. His family announced in July 2012 that it would no longer invest in the magazine and Web site.

Asked by Bloomberg to look back at the acquisition, Mr. Diller called the idea of printing a single magazine “a fool’s errand,” especially “if that magazine is a newsweekly.”

Newsweek struggled financially even after the merger. In October, the magazine announced that it would end its print edition and become a digital publication that would still be edited by Ms. Brown. Mr. Diller has been frank about becoming involved in Newsweek, saying at the time of the announcement, “It was a mistake to take this one on.”

Earlier in the interview with Bloomberg, Mr. Diller was pressed about his investment in Aereo, the start-up Internet service that streams material from broadcast stations without compensating them. “This is not done because oh, here’s a gold mine and I can plant my little flag on it,’’ he said. “I’m doing it because to me, the ability to get the world to utilize the Internet for all its information, its entertainment, its news, its video is a big shift.” He said he had the law on his side — two court decision so far have gone in his favor — and he wasn’t surprised that the networks were objecting: “No incumbent wants anyone in.”

Article source: http://www.nytimes.com/2013/04/30/business/media/diller-gives-bleak-assessment-of-newsweek.html?partner=rss&emc=rss