"The Daily Beast" began publishing on October 6, 2008. Its founding editor was Tina Brown, a former editor of "Vanity Fair" and "The New Yorker" as well as the short-lived "Talk" magazine. Brown stepped down as editor in September 2013. John Avlon, an American journalist and political commentator as well as a CNN contributor, was the site's editor-in-chief and managing director from 2013 to 2018. The name of the site was taken from a fictional newspaper in Evelyn Waugh's novel "Scoop".