Newsweek.com Staff Fights Site Shutdown
NEW YORK (
) --
Newsweek.com
staffers
have taken to Tumblr
to speak out against
Newsweek
and
The Daily Beast
joint company CEO Stephen Colvin's plans to discontinue the magazine's Web site once the merger is complete.
"Newsweek.com will cease to exist after the merger," Colvin said in the
New York Times
on Saturday. "Readers who type that URL into their browser will be redirected to TheDailyBeast.com, where
Newsweek
content will be housed."
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Last week the two news outlets
. The joint venture will be equally owned by
Newsweek
owner Sidney Harman and Barry Diller, CEO of
The Daily Beast's
parent company
IAC/InterActive
(IACI)
. Tina Brown, co-founder and editor in chief of
The Daily Beast
, will also become the new editor in chief at
Newsweek
magazine.
In response to Colvin, an anonymous group of
Newsweek.com
employees created a Tumblr page titled "Save Newsweek.com -- A Defense of Newsweek.com."
The blog has one post dated Nov. 14 explaining why it "would be a mistake to close the award-winning Web site of
Newsweek
magazine."
The anonymous author wrote that by merging the two sites, the new company will likely lose visitors. While the venture hopes the
Beast
will absorb
Newsweek's
5 million unique monthly visitors, the author points out that more than 60% of
Newsweek's
visitors come in through its partnerships with MSNBC and MSN, as well as its social networking connections.
"Tina Brown is a legend, and we're excited for her, and the future of
Newsweek
," the post reads. "But if she does make the decision to fold
Newsweek.com
, here's what we hope everyone remembers: In the face of indifference, condescension and even outright hostility from its print counterpart; with little to no resources... the small but tireless staff at Newsweek.com consistently created editorial work that made waves."
"Whatever happens to
Newsweek
," the post concluded, "we are all proud to have played a part in that."
In response to the Tumblr page and the reports that followed,
, "Woah! Newsweek.com's superb content will live on under its own banner & in URLs on the new site. Not shutting down, combining."
-- Written by Theresa McCabe in Boston.
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