Newsweek owner dies at 92

Audio equipment millionaire Sidney Harman, who bought Newsweek magazine last year and oversaw its merger with The Daily Beast, has died aged 92.

Mr Harman died last night of complications from leukaemia. He learned of his illness about a month ago.

“He died in Washington, DC, a city he loved and supported in so many ways, surrounded by his wife and children,” a family statement said.

Mr Harman is the founder of Harman International Industries, which was based in Washington for years before it was sold in 2007 for about 8 billion dollars.

In the Newsweek deal, Mr Harman paid The Washington Post one dollar for the money-losing newsweekly, and the Post agreed to cover up to $10 million of the magazine’s debt.

Three months later, Mr Harman’s negotiations helped install veteran editor Tina Brown as Newsweek’s editor-in-chief to lead its merger with The Daily Beast. Mr Harman said the merger provided an “ideal combination of established journalism authority and bright, bristling website savvy”.

Mr Harman was a philanthropist, arts patron and familiar face in Washington’s social scene. He rarely missed the annual Kennedy Centre Honours gala. He was married to former California Representative Jane Harman, who recently left Congress to lead the Woodrow Wilson International Centre for Scholars.

In 2007, Mr Harman gave nearly 20 million dollars to build a new home for Washington’s popular Shakespeare Theatre Company.