Daily Beast

Video: BoomTown Talks AOL-HuffPo as Web's Condé Nast on CNN

Kara Swisher in News on February 14, 2011 at 12:15 pm PT

Here is a video of a segment I did on CNN’s “Reliable Sources” yesterday morning–in the wee hours in San Francisco, hence the bags under my eyes–about last week’s $315 million acquisition of the Huffington Post by AOL. “Someone has to be the Condé Nast of the Internet,” I noted in answer to a question from host Howard Kurtz, since it has not been that famous magazine company which has become the big publishing dog online.

Facebook to Big Media: We Like You. We Really, Really Like You.

Peter Kafka in Media on December 16, 2010 at 3:30 am PT

Facebook has 550 million friends, but it’s working extra hard to woo a very specific group: Heavyweight media companies. It might be working! See: A proposed linkup between the social network, Time Warner’s cable channels and Verizon’s FiOS TV.

Newsweek, Daily Beast to Merge

Russell Adams, Reporter, the Wall Street Journal in News on November 11, 2010 at 5:56 pm PT

Newsweek magazine and news website The Daily Beast have agreed to a deal that will make Daily Beast co-founder Tina Brown the editor-in-chief of the combined operation, according to people familiar with the situation, three weeks after they abandoned talks of a merger over a disagreement about control.

Strong Personalities Color Talks Between Newsweek, Daily Beast

Russell Adams, Reporter, The Wall Street Journal in News on October 11, 2010 at 5:00 am PT

Newsweek magazine and the Daily Beast news website are deep in talks over a possible combination and the likelihood of a deal is increasing, though some hurdles remain. The key question hanging over talks is whether a merged operation would be big enough for the three outsize personalities that such a deal would bring together, according to people familiar with the discussions.

Sumner Redstone's Many Gigs: Viacom Chairman, Girl-Band Promoter, Leak Plugger!

Peter Kafka in Media on July 20, 2010 at 5:22 am PT

The Viacom chairman doesn’t like a story the Daily Beast ran about his infatuation with a “scantily clad girl group,” and he wants to know who leaked it. “You will be well-rewarded and well-protected,” he promises reporter Peter Lauria. Hear the voicemail for yourself.

President Clinton Talks About His Internet Legacy (BTW, He's an iPhone Dude, While the GOP's #41 Is a BlackBerry Teen)

Kara Swisher in News on March 18, 2010 at 12:38 am PT

Here is a video I did of former President Bill Clinton talking at an event related to the 25th anniversary of the first .com registration. Clinton gave a speech first–which was, inexplicably, about health-care legislation and global warming. But after Clintion was done, he sat down with VeriSign CEO Mark McLaughlin to talk about a range of Web-related topics, in a very amusing exchange.

Meghan McCain Twitter Photo Sparks Controversy

Andrew LaVallee, Reporter, The Wall Street Journal in News on October 15, 2009 at 2:36 pm PT

Meghan McCain, a Daily Beast columnist and daughter of Sen. John McCain, apologized late Wednesday after posting a photo of herself on Twitter that stirred up some criticism and plenty of retweets. The photo shows Ms. McCain in a tanktop, holding a copy of Andy Warhol’s biography, and her accompanying tweet referred to her “’spontaneous’ night in.”

Hearst Launches Aggregator Site LMK

Shira Ovide, Reporter, The Wall Street Journal in News on October 9, 2009 at 12:16 pm PT

Hearst today launched LMK.com, a low-cost Web roundup on topics from college football to reality television. (For the youth-challenged, “LMK” is the texting shorthand for “let me know.”) LMK joins a crowded field of aggregation sites, which cull news and information from across the Web and organize them by topic or in other user-friendly ways. Other aggregators include Topix, Newser and Daylife, and sites like the Daily Beast that combine aggregation with their own content.

Dear Dad: You Lost the Election Because the GOP FailWhaled on the Web

Kara Swisher in News on February 20, 2009 at 1:45 am PT

Almost-First Daughter Meghan McCain gave the Republican Party the analog equivalent of an unhappy emoticon yesterday in a column in The Daily Beast, predicting the political party will lose power quicker than a faulty iPhone if it does not get more Web-savvy pronto. BoomTown always liked GOP Presidential candidate Sen. John McCain’s sassy spawn, who had a pretty good blog during the campaign and was always coming out with some little nugget that I am sure made her PR handlers cringe. Well, there she goes again!