Former Tatler editor Tina Brown has launched her new online project, The Daily Beast.
The site is password protected, but PaidContent.org had a chat with Brown ahead of today’s launch about what to expect.
The site is aiming to be a “one-stop news shop”, mixing aggregation with original content – and takes the name of the mythical newspaper in Evelyn Waugh’s classic novel about journalism, Scoop.
Brown, who has also edited Vanity Fair and the New Yorker, said: ‘I’ve come to feel word of mouth is reshaping media and culture and we’re building a site where the rationale is word of mouth, the word of mouth of people we feel are interesting and feel have something to say and offer and know something. … There are other places where you can get aggregation, sure, but ultimately this will work–or not–depending on whether you like the sensibility of the people choosing it.”
The site will have around 30 per cent original content, including a weekly column from Brown and ‘commenting’through the week.
Brown said she much prefers the internet to magazines. ‘One of the great agonies of magazines is it takes so damn long. What I’m loving about this is we’re actually able to build it fast and get the response and weave that into our evolution. It’s very exciting. It’s thrilling.”
Brown launched her own magazine, Talk, which failed after just two years in 2002.
In an interview with Press Gazette last year Brown said she felt magazines may have had their best moment. She said: “What Talk magazine taught me is that logistics are very important. Until Talk I would have said, ‘Jump in, both feet, hooray! Let’s just get it done’. I now realise that you need a management that’s on the same page, the budget, the commitment, a person to control the marketing side.”
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