In one of the final, wheezing gasps from the magazine that the world, for 79 years, used to know as Newsweek, there is now word that The Newsweek Daily Beast Company has officially changed its name to "NewsBeast" — which sounds about as fierce as the company is not. Brian Ries, the social-media editor for "NewsBeast" broke the news this morning: 

BREAKING! “The Newsweek Daily Beast Company” has officially changed its name to NewsBeast, per our CEO! Internet wins!

— Brian Ries Verified! (@moneyries) February 1, 2013

That sort of sounds cool, at least according to the folks at the print magazine formerly known as Newsweek and now known as an iPad app and website, who will be getting "fun" new "NewsBeast" email addresses:

Kind of jealous you'll have a @newsbeast .com e-mail address now, @moneyries. Sounds like a Roald Dahl monster.

— Rubina Madan Fillion (@rubinafillion) February 1, 2013

As Ries insists, though, this is just about the bigger company changing it's name — The Daily Beast will remain, as will the name Newsweek, which since the last issue has continued to exist only in tablet and international form....

@cschweitz it’s feb! Note site/magazine not changing, just company name. The name on our paychecks.

— Brian Ries Verified! (@moneyries) February 1, 2013

Adding insult to weirdness, this newly named "NewsBeast" company doesn't own @NewsBeast Twitter handle. It looks like it belongs to a Greek organization:

Not that Tina Brown liked Twitter all that much anyway — or Newsweek, come to think of it.

Update 11:26 a.m.: This is apparently a scene from the meeting new logo whereTina Brown and CEO Baba Shetty announced the company change and are looking a little sad (via Daily Beast's Instagram).  A spokesperson for the company said this was not the logo and just an iteration of the NewsBeast name. 

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Alexander Abad-Santos