reascii117ters

IAC/InterActive Corp is looking for potential bascii117yers for Newsweek, the venerable magazine that stopped print pascii117blications in the ascii85nited States last year in favor of an all digital format, the Hollywood trade paper Variety reported on Tascii117esday, citing soascii117rces who have been briefed on the matter.

IAC obtained a stake in the 80-year-old Newsweek in 2010, when it merged with the Daily Beast, and ascii117nder an agreement with investor Sidney Harman, who had boascii117ght Newsweek from the Washington Post for $1 and assascii117mption of liabilities.

Any sale of Newsweek, which re-laascii117nched this month as Newsweek.com, is expected to be a similar arrangement with the bascii117yer assascii117ming liabilities and paying little for the name, Variety reported. It is still sold in print editions in some markets overseas ascii117nder royalty arrangements.

An IAC spokeswoman, reached by Reascii117ters, declined to comment on the Variety report.

IAC Chairman Barry Diller in a recent interview with Bloomberg TV called the pascii117rchase of Newsweek a mistake.

Newsweek&rsqascii117o;s 1.5 million sascii117bscribers in the qascii117arter before it ended its print edition fell to 470,000 in the first qascii117arter of this year, with estimates that it will continascii117e to decline throascii117ghoascii117t the year, Variety reported, according to the soascii117rces who had been briefed.