Newsweek staff may join Daily Beast in IAC building

Newsweek staffers have been skeptical about whether Tina Brown, and the Daily Beast staff, would ever move over to the magazine's new, supposedly "dingy" offices after the merger of the two struggling companies is completed in a few weeks.

Now comes word from Newsweek owner Sidney Harman that the Newsweek staff may actually be the ones moving yet again -- this time, to the glitzy, Frank Gehry-designed IAC building that the Daily Beast staff now calls home. Harman's memo, obtained by The Cutline, is after the jump.

At our last "all hands" meeting, someone asked me whether our move to Hanover Square would be our last. The question had a near biblical quality. I replied that I was committed to a profitable N/W in three years and that when we were standing on our own feet, I would press to find more elegant quarters. Now, thanks to the imagination and generosity of Barry Diller, it may be possible to accommodate the combined Newsweek and The Daily Beast operations at the world class 18th Street IAC building. If the space will work, we will make every effort to complete the move before March 30, 2011 - and at no extra cost to the newly merged company. I had no idea that such good fortune might greet our "wandering tribe " so soon. If we can make this work, we will temporarily house TDB staff at Hanover Square while construction proceeds at 18th St. More inconvenience, I fear, but in the end very, very well worth it. Joe Galarneau on the N/W side and his counterpart, Jason Stewart on TDB side will head the effort, reporting to our CEO, Stephen Colvin. He and I will keep you advised.

With warm regards, Sidney Harman

(Photo of IAC building from 2009: AP/ Mark Lennihan)