Three top men out at Tina Brown's Newsweek in just a day
The headline on Huffington Post said it all: 'Newsweek Loses Publisher, Managing Editor, and Executive Editor In Single Day'
Michele Bachmann: controversial cover
Publisher Ray Chelstowski , managing editor Tom Weber and executive editor Edward Felsenthal are all out at the American newsmagazine run by Tina Brown, in tandem with her website the Daily Beast .
The New York Times says Chelstowski, whose task was increasing ad sales, was fired, while Weber and Felsenthal resigned. Felsenthal had been with The Daily Beast since it went online in 2008.
The company's huge management shake-up is a result of poor ad performance, according to sources quoted by the Wall Street Journal.
Newsweek merged with the Daily Beast last year, "but the new venture has not done as well as some had hoped -- and still faces an uphill climb," said Huffpo.
Chelstowski had been named publisher in January. Tom Weber became managing editor in May when he replaced editor Brekke Fletcher, who left after five months of the new regime.
The moves were not directly related to each other, said the New York Times "but do reflect how much remains unsettled at Newsweek nearly a year after Sidney Harman, the audio tycoon, purchased it and hired a new executive team that included Tina Brown as editor." Mr. Harman died in April at 92.
Chelstowski, who successfully turned round Entertainment Weekly, is being replaced by Eric Danetz, from CBS Interactive.
Edward Felsenthal will be replaced at the magazine by senior editor Justine Rosenthal and at the Beast by Jane Spencer, the site's managing editor.
Newsweek and the Daily Beast are owned jointly by IAC/InteractiveCorp. and the estate of stereo-tycoon Sidney Harman.
Last year, Newsweek lost $20 million and the Daily Beast about $10 million. The owners say the merged company is on the right track. October ad pages were up 10% from a year earlier.
"I'm sick of people chiming on about Newsweek's red ink," said Barry Diller, the chairman of IAC. "The truth is Newsweek is exactly where I hoped it would be. Its metrics are improving every quarter."