sECTM NEWS AGGRAGATION BY sExxell
October 06, 2008 | 10:41:08 AM 
Tina Brown has found one way around the struggle for winning ad dollars in the middle of a financial meltdown — her new website is ad free.
Together with Barry Diller's IAC, today Brown launched The Daily Beast. Named after the fictional paper in Evelyn Waugh's novel "Scoop," the site hopes to be a "a speedy, smart edit of the web from the merciless point of view of what interests the editors."
Though The Beast plans to be a revenue earning business for IAC, there are no ads on the site today. And that is no coincidence. Brown tells Paid Content that advertising is not a current priority: “At this point, in this first phase, we’re only focusing on the content and building the audience.”
Brown is refreshingly candid about her new venture in a Q&A on the site today. Known for burning through millions during her tenure at Talk magazine, she responds to the likelihood that she will bankrupt Diller with her new project: "Even I don't know how to spend money that fast."
But the issue is pertinent. The Daily Beast has signed on some big names and likely substantial overhead. Competing against established brands like The Huffington Post, Slate, Drudge, and aggregators all over the web, the site will have to work hard to sustain the boost that its founder's name brings on opening day.
With IAC's support, Brown's Beast can gain some traction and work on growing its audience without relying on ad dollars for survival. But at some point it will need to turn a profit.
For that to happen, Brown needs to prove that her magazine skills can translate to bringing internet eyeballs to her site on a daily basis. And hope that ad dollars are on the rebound when the site tries to start making money.