Gawker has been taking the piss out of it, but I am kind of completely in love with Tina Brown’s The Daily Beast, which launched todayish.  At this point, I can’t really speak towards the editorial, having taking only a cursory glance, but the site is pretty!  All of these damn Web 2.0 newsy sites are starting to look the same: either basic bloggy things (like Gawker! which I love!) or confusing, completely scattershot aggregations of everything going on ever (like The Huffington Post, which I respect, but have never been able to read consistently) that make reading absolutely difficult because there is so damn much going on.  The Beast is perched right on the delicate line between the two and seems to work really well.

Another thing that really struck me was Tina Brown’s self-awareness in her introductory Q&A thing.  It could be interpreted as defensive, and she does come across as perhaps a little smarmy (which is maybe just reading, rather than hearing, her Britishness), but it does seem that she’s covered her bases and properly positioned The Beast.

There are potential concerns, such as the complete lack of any ads, which…what?  They seem necessary and launching without them will lead to people bitching when they do eventually show up.  Plus, it looks like the design was conceived without taking them into consideration, which is a shame because the visual design is wonderful.  The other glaring concern is the timing, given the current economic situation.

It’ll be interesting to see how this develops.  There is definite potential, and it should demonstrate the receptiveness of the market to new offerings.  Granted, it could be shit and not a true representation of what can still be done, but it’s being backed by Barry Diller’s money, and money has the potential to disguise shortcomings.