COMM 150: This might be a good final exam topic ...

Is that headline blatant enough for you?

But it's true. It might ...

It's a story in The New York Times on why The Daily Beast is buying Newsweek ... and it's all about convergence as it explores why Barry Diller, owner of several electronic magazines and websites including the Beast, would want to buy an ailing print publication. Merger of Newsweek and the Beast was announced late last week.

And an interview with the principals in the merger on CNN's "Reliable Sources" show. Hosted by Howard Kurtz, media critic who recently left The Washington Post for The Daily Beast, the show's format allowed Tina Brown, editor-in-chief of the combined publication, and Newsweek owner Sidney Harman to expand on the economics of publishing print magazines, web publication and their plans for the future. Count how many times they use the word "brand."

Headline in the Times: "Newsweek’s Printing Press Was a Top Draw for [Beast owner] Diller."

Some snippets:

• “It’s hard to make enough money on digital-only platforms,” said Jim VandeHei, executive editor of Politico, which despite being a thriving Web site still generates about half its revenue from a print publication distributed free on weekdays around Washington. “Digital is clearly the future, but print — in the right circumstances — can still thrive and help provide a bridge to an all-digital future,” Mr. VandeHei said.
  
  
• Mr. Diller had more than a few good reasons to think twice about not being too territorial when it came to sharing control with Mr. Harman. Starting his own print version of The Daily Beast would be costly. Newsweek had a brand and all the infrastructure in place needed to go to print on Day 1.
  
  Plus, by rolling Newsweek.com into The Daily Beast, they could hope to absorb some of the nearly five million unique visitors Newsweek clocks each month. The Daily Beast’s traffic growth has slowed lately, though it is up tenfold to more than two million a month since the site made its debut in October 2008, according to comScore.
  
  
• The merger is likely to come with other forms of consolidation. One of the main reasons the merger appealed to Mr. Diller and Mr. Harman was that combining the newsrooms and business sides would allow them to reduce staffing. When asked about possible job cuts on Friday, Ms. Brown said, “We’re going to have to look at the whole business model, the whole editorial model, and we’ll have to make our assessments.”

Which means we'd better go back and look what I posted a couple of days ago, too, about this merger. There are branding issues here, along with the convergence of new and old media. That's a big part of why I'm thinking maybe final exam question ...