For Newsweek, Tina Brown Aims for Right Mix of Serious and Light

Facing a steady bleed of talent and money, Newsweek's merger with the Daily Beast is widely viewed as the best-possible outcome for the weekly magazine. But does Beast co-founder Tina Brown have enough magic -- and resources -- to revive a magazine widely left for dead?

Barry Diller, chief executive of Beast owner IAC/InterActiveCorp, says Newsweek under Brown will be a "completely different product." Newsweek owner Sidney Harman says he and Brown agree there is no place for a magazine that reports the events of the past week and it has to focus more on graphics and design, which he said have been an afterthought. Brown, who will oversee the editorial operations of the magazine as well as the news-and-culture website, says she isn't ready to talk about her plans for the publication. But in the early days of Harman's courtship of Brown, she sent him a "brilliant essay" that conveyed the key elements of her vision for the magazine, he says. That vision is expected to include introducing a blend of serious and light topics that she perfected at previous career stops, including the Beast.