The International Business Times has announced that it will acquire Newsweek, marking an end to media mogul Barry Diller's internet news magazine experiment. The deal comes less than a year after Newsweek transitioned from its 80-year-old classic print format to an all-digital model; the final print issue ran on December 31st, 2012, with a dramatic cover containing the hashtag "#LastPrintIssue." While Newsweek is part of a joint venture with sister site The Daily Beast, the Beast will not be included in the sale. BuzzFeed reports that The Daily Beast will continue to be run under Diller's IAC by Tina Brown. The terms of the deal have not been made public.
The sale doesn't come as a huge surprise based on ominous comments from former owner Barry Diller, who is perhaps currently best known for causing headaches in the broadcasting world with Aereo. In April, Diller expressed regret for purchasing Newsweek, calling the acquisition a mistake. "Printing a single magazine is a fool's errand if that magazine is a newsweekly," Diller said. "I don't have high expectations."
Newsweek will be operated as a subsidiary of IBT, and will return to its own domain "in the coming weeks."