Barry Diller, the chairman of Newsweek parent company InterActiveCorp, told Bloomberg News on Monday he didn’t have great expectations for the struggling digital-only publication and that he wishes he hadn’t bought it.
Speaking to correspondent Willow Bay, Mr. Diller said the company decided to cut its print edition “because printing a single magazine is a fool’s errand, if that magazine is news weekly.”
“There are some one-off magazines that have no competition in their field, luxury magazines, where advertisers must advertise in them,” he said. “But for a news magazine — which is an odd phrase these days — news weekly, we have news instantly, but it was not possible to print it any longer.”
Rather than folding Newsweek and The Daily Beast altogether, Mr. Diller explained that given the strong newsroom, they decided to offer a purely digital product.
But he added he is far from optimistic about the endeavor.
“I don’t have great expectations,” the chairman revealed. “I wish I hadn’t bought Newsweek. It was a mistake.”
• Jessica Chasmar can be reached at jchasmar@washingtontimes.com.
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