BoSacks Speaks Out: There is an old expression that says if you have nothing nice to say you better not say anything.  As it turns out I do have a few nice things to say.

Tina Brown was once on top of our game. She was editor-in-chief of the British magazine Tatler at ripe age of only 25. Later she rose to prominence in American media as the editor of Vanity Fair from 1984 to 1992 and of The New Yorker from 1992 to 1998. In 2000 she was appointed a CBE (Commander of the Order of the British Empire) for her services to overseas journalism, and in 2007 was inducted into the Magazine Editors' Hall of Fame.

All of that is quite remarkable, and truth be told she did a splendid job for some 25 years or so.  Then, like one of those old sports legends who stay on the field way past their prime, she lost her touch on what the reading public actually wanted in a magazine.

My analysis is that her focus is of an editorial time long gone by. She kept trying to recreate her heydays and she and her backers didn't realize that the public had grown, matured or just had other interests. I think I can understand her numerous attempts, for in truth, being a great editor isn't usually like being a once great, yet now aging athlete. You don't necessarily know as an editor that your skills have gone. But in this case, she just couldn't swing the red editor's pencil as fast as she used to, and she struck out at multiple plates. 

I guess to me, this is a story like that of Muhammad Ali, who is regarded as one of the greatest boxers of all time. But Ali refused to listen to advice from those close to him. He should have called it a day after winning the WBA heavyweight title off Leon Spinks.  Instead Ali kept fighting, beyond is ability to do so. Too old to face his last fights with grace or style, he took an unnecessary beating. The punishment he took was terrible to behold and not befitting a great champion.

I wish Ms. Brown the greatest of success in her next adventure in building up and running the Women in the World conferences.   

Tina Brown to Leave The Daily Beast and Publishing

By CHRISTINE HAUGHNEY

http://www.nytimes.com/2013/09/12/business/media/tina-brown-to-leave-daily-beast-to-focus-on-conferences.html?_r=0

Ms. Brown announced Wednesday that she would step down as editor in chief of the Web site The Daily Beast and start her own conference company.

The departure will end, for now, her career as one of the magazine industry's well known editors, one who received much acclaim for her stewardship of Vanity Fair and The New Yorker then had less success with Talk magazine and the merger of The Daily Beast and Newsweek.

It will also end her publishing partnership with her financial backer, Barry Diller, the chairman of IAC/InterActiveCorp, which began in 2008 when the two joined together to found The Daily Beast.

Ms. Brown, 59, said in a statement that she would start Tina Brown Live Media, which will focus on building up the Women in the World conferences she has been organizing and running for several years.

At a meeting with the Daily Beast staff Wednesday, Ms. Brown said that she would remain until the end of the year, when her contract expires.

"It has been wonderful to grow the Women in the World summit into such a powerful, independent brand within The Daily Beast, and now it will be even more exciting to see how it can expand and develop," Ms. Brown said in the statement.

An executive with direct knowledge of the negotiations said her split with Mr. Diller was friendly, and that she had been saying for more than a month that she did not want to continue in such a stressful position into the new year.

It is unclear what Ms. Brown's departure means for the future of The Daily Beast. The Web site has lost millions of dollars since its inception, though Ms. Brown had projected that it would break even long before now. The executive, speaking on condition of anonymity because Ms. Brown was handling the public announcement, said it was unlikely the Web site would be closed.

Ms. Brown said The Daily Beast "has given me some of the most exciting and fulfilling years of my professional life," adding that she was "enormously proud" of what the Web site had achieved.

News of Ms. Brown's decision was first reported by the Web site BuzzFeed.

Ms. Brown and Mr. Diller expressed great enthusiasm when they started The Daily Beast in 2008. But their relationship was put to the test in 2010 when Ms. Brown persuaded Mr. Diller to help support the storied but struggling Newsweek magazine and merge it with The Daily Beast. Even Ms. Brown's best efforts to save Newsweek were soured by the struggling market for newsmagazines, and Newsweek lost tens of millions of dollars.

Mr. Diller complained publicly for months about his frustrations with Newsweek, and referred to the acquisition of it as a "mistake." Late in 2012, Ms. Brown announced that Newsweek would cease publishing a print edition. In May, Ms. Brown confirmed that the magazine was for sale, and in early August Newsweek was sold to the digital news company International Business Times.

The news of Ms. Brown's approaching departure attracted rapid attention on Twitter from the myriad people who work in or track the New York media world. Within minutes of its report, BuzzFeed posted a photograph on Twitter of Ms. Brown sitting alone in a Chelsea restaurant, reporting that she was "yelling into the phone."

The photograph drew dozens of retweets and comments that expressed both sadness and schadenfreude. They ranged from "I don't know what to say! I feel bad for her!" to "I seriously LOL'd at that photo and could imagine her screeching in my head."

Though Ms. Brown drew praise from many current and former employees, she made her share of critics as she tried to steer Newsweek through a turbulent time in the media industry. Dan Lyons, Newsweek's former technology editor, wrote on Facebook Wednesday: "At rows of desks, reporters and editors pretend to stare at screens, while fighting the urge to jump and start dancing and cheering."

Ms. Brown has been hosting the Women in the World conferences for the last three years along with Mr. Diller's wife, Diane von Furstenberg, and the actress Meryl Streep. She is taking her events group, which is headed by Kathy O'Hearn, from The Daily Beast to help her with her conferences.

Ms. Brown worked with Anita Dunn, a former White House communications director for President Obama, to manage her announcement Wednesday, suggesting that in the future Ms. Brown may pay far more attention to Washington political circles than to the New York publishing world she is leaving behind.

It appears that Ms. Brown will continue to have some ties with The Daily Beast and IAC even in her conference business. In her statement, Ms. Brown said The Daily Beast would remain a media partner for the April 2014 conference.

Leslie Kaufman and David Carr contributed reporting.