Shakeup at Newsweek: Publisher, managing editor exit

The masthead at Newsweek already went through a shake-up a year ago following the magazine's merger with Tina Brown's Daily Beast. And now it appears the newsweekly is getting another one as it struggles to turn itself around.

Newsweek publisher Ray Chelstowski and managing editor Tom Weber are out at the magazine, a spokesman for the Newsweek-Daily Beast company confirmed to Yahoo News. Chelstowski was installed in January after Sidney Harman struck a deal with Brown and Barry Diller to manage Newsweek. (Harman died in April at 92.)

Eric Danetz, an executive at CBS Interactive, is coming on board with the title of SVP, sales, the spokesman said.

The exit of top executives follows smaller shakeups among the ranks: Eve Conant, who covered immigration and politics, and longtime national security contributor John Barry were let go, too. (Newsweek, the spokesman pointed out, has made a handful of recent hires, including Abigail Pesta, editorial director of the magazine's "Women of the World" franchise.)

Through September, Newsweek's ad pages were down 22 percent compared to the same period in 2010, according to the Publishers Information Bureau. The magazine's estimated advertising revenue for the first nine months--$93.9 million--was down about 18 percent.

However, the spokesman also noted that Newsweek's ad pages ticked up 10 percent in October, and subscription renewals are up for the first time in years.

Newsstand sales--a key point of emphasis for Brown--are up 20 percent since the merger, he said.

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