Daily Beast, Newsweek Kill Merger Talks

The Daily Beast and Newsweek have pulled off a pre-marital divorce, reports the Wall Street Journal, with merger talks breaking down over the weekend over the finer points of editorial control. Though both parties stood to save costs by consolidating the editorial staff, the Journal notes that Beast co-owners Tina Brown and Barry Diller, and new Newsweek owner Stephen Harman are all heavily invested both financially and emotionally in their properties.

For her part, Brown wrote in a memo about the proposed merger that: "The engagement was fun but the pre-nup got too complex. We wish Newsweek all the best."
(More Newsweek stories.)