Reports: Publisher, Top Editors Out At Newsweek/Daily Beast

Ray Chelstowski--who joined Newsweek/Daily Beast as publisher in January as part of the new joint management team--is out while executive editor Edward Felsenthal and managing editor Tom Weber have both resigned, according to sources including The New York Times and The Wall Street Journal.

The Times says the three departures are not related but are indicative of the struggles that Newsweek is facing a year after audio tycoon Sidney Harman bought the magazine and set up a new executive team, including Tina Brown as editor.

Eric Danetz, who most recently served as vice president of sales for CBS Interactive, replaces Chelstowski. Ad pages in Newsweek are down 21 percent through November 14, according to FOLIO: sister site minonline. Chelstowski's future had been in doubt since Robert Gregory became Newsweek Daily beast president in September, adding a new layer between Chelstowski and CEP Stephen Colvin, according to minonline.com.

In June, Joseph Galarneau, the former chief operating officer and digital general manager of The Newsweek/Daily Beast Co., left shortly before Newsweek.com retired its URL in favor of a Newsweek channel on DailyBeast.com (at the time, Newsweek.com drove twice as many monthly uniques--10 million--as did Dailybeast.com). Galarneau joined Newsweek as SVP of operations and CIO mid-July 2009 and was promoted into the COO/GM spot just before the merger last November.

Post Comment / Discuss This Story - Info/Rules