The Daily Beast finally gets its Newsweek merger

American news website the Daily Beast and magazine Newsweek have agreed a deal to combine, just weeks after abandoning merger talks.

Daily Beast co-founder and editor, Tina Brown, said the agreement would combine the two groups in a 50-50 joint venture called the Newsweek Daily Beast Company.

Brown, a former editor of The New Yorker and Talk magazines, will be editor-in-chief of the new group. Management will report to an independent board.

"Some weddings take longer to plan than others," Brown wrote on the website today, saying the deal had been agreed "with a coffee-mug toast" on Tuesday evening and finalised last night. Last month she wrote that "the engagement was fun but the pre-nup got too complex".

Newsweek has been without an editor since its owner, stereo magnate Sidney Harman, bought the magazine from The Washington Post for a token cash price of $1 in a deal that closed in September.

Harman, the 92-year-old audio equipment tycoon, will be executive chairman of the new venture while Daily Beast president Stephen Colvin will be chief executive.

The magazine was on track to lose about $20 million this year when Harman made the purchase, according to the Wall Street Journal. It added that The Daily Beast, which is owned by IAC/InterActiveCorp, will lose about $10 million this year.