In one of the most turbulent days since the merger of Newsweek and Daily Beast, the publication booted Publisher Ray Chelstowski, and saw Executive Editor Ed Felsenthal and Managing Editor Tom Weber leave the Tina Brown-led operation.
The venture is believed to be on target to lose about $30 million this year, and its owners are clearly growing impatient with the red ink.
Brown has been trying to reinvent the formula of what makes a successful newsweekly, with limited success.
“She’s trying to create a magazine for urbane women,” said one source close to the situation. But at times the cover selections are closer to People’s than the serious journalism that Newsweek was known for. This week, the cover features Jerry Seinfeld and Regis Philbin.
In June, Brown stirred controversy with a June cover of Princess Diana as she might have looked at age 50.
Chelstowski is being replaced by Eric Danetz, who was vice president of sales at CBS Interactive. He will be senior vice president of sales at Newsweek Daily Beast. Chelstowski could not be reached for comment.
Felsenthal, who worked for Editor-in-Chief Brown for four years, will now see his former job split in half. Justine Rosenthal, a senior editor, will be executive editor of the magazine. Jane Spencer, who was managing editor of the Daily Beast Web site, will now be an executive editor of the Web operation.
Weber will not be replaced, but Mark Miller, a one-time assistant managing editor, is going to rejoin as director of editorial operations.