Media scribe Peter Lauria has officially exited Tina Brown’s The Daily Beast.
Lauria and his former employer confirmed he had departed late last night. He had jumped from the New York Post only ten months ago.
“Lauria left The Daily Beast to pursue other opportunities,” a spokesman for Brown said. “We appreciate his contributions to our organization and wish him the best in his future endeavors.”
Lauria said in an emailed statement, “I’m proud to have worked alongside The Daily Beast’s esteemed collection of writers and editors over the last 10 months. I left to pursue other opportunities. I wish the company continued success and look forward to reading all the great work produced by the site in the future.”
The departure caps several months of tension between Lauria and top editors at the Beast, insiders said.
Problems seemed to start around the time Lauria unearthed a scoop about Viacom boss Sumner Redstone and his infatuation with an all-girl band, the Electric Barbarellas.
Lauria reported that Redstone had showered money and granted stock options to the lead singer while trying to land the group a record deal and an MTV reality show.
Sumner tried to convince Lauria to turn over his source, and the tape recorded message turned into an overnight sensation that landed Lauria on NBC’s “Today Show.” Several sources said Brown felt she should have gone on the show.
When the Beast merger with Newsweek was announced, Lauria stood out among the crowd for pressing executives on how merging the two outfits that were both losing money was going to work.