Editor Jon Meacham Leaves Newsweek

Jon Meacham is expected to announce his departure as editor of Newsweek today, following the magazine’s purchase by Dr. Sidney Harman, Politico reports. Meacham’s resignation isn’t a protest of Harman, as the editor had been planning to leave no matter who bought the magazine. Meacham won a Pulitzer Prize last year for his biography of Andrew Jackson and is currently on a biography of Thomas Jefferson; he also has plans to write on George H.W. Bush. Harman bought the news weekly from the Washington Post Co., which had been trying to sell the weekly since May. According to The New York Times, Harman got the magazine for $1, though that might not be as much of a bargain-basement price as it sounds once you factor in the debts he'll absorb. Newsweek lost almost $30 million last year alone. Harman is expected to preserve the tone the magazine had under Meacham, and he reportedly got the deal by promising to retain a significant number of the magazine's 325 employees.