ink-stained wretches

Tina Brown’s Extravagant Party Days Are Over

Newsweek editor Tina Brown is known for her splashy high-profile launch of pop culture mag Talk, and celebrity-studded parties for Vanity Fair and The New Yorker. But those days are over: now she’s simply focused on getting ailing Newsweek—which she inherited in the Daily Beast/Newsweek merger—back on its feet. “I think the most important thing is to prove that a year from now we’re thriving and still here,” said Brown of her work on Newsweek’s redesign. “Maybe we’ll have a little Christmas party. We have a lot of work to do.”

Equally gone is the budget to have a stable of staff writers. Brown is said to be shaving down the staff at both the Beast and Newsweek—and earlier this month Brown offered buyouts to around 30 employees. And she’s looking to hire more writers on a per piece basis“What we cannot have is what the old-style magazines had, where people are supported to do not a ton of pieces,” she said.

At Newsweek, a Humble and Frugal Tina Brown [NYT]

Tina Brown’s Extravagant Party Days Are Over