Business & Finance Club - New York : U.S. weekly magazine Newsweek and the Daily Beast news website are exploring possibilities to combine their operations and the likelihood of a deal is increasing, the Wall Street Journal said, citing people familiar with the discussions.

A deal would make Daily Beast co-founder and co-owner Tina Brown the editor of Newsweek on top of her existing editorial duties at the website, the Journal said.

Audio equipment magnate Sidney Harman, the founder of Harman International Industries Inc, bought the money losing Newsweek from The Washington Post Co in August.

The Daily Beast publishes news and commentary, and now averages 4.6 million visitors a month, the Journal said, citing data from Omniture, a Web analytics company.

The Daily Beast is expected to lose about $10 million this year, a person familiar with the matter told the Journal.

However, The Daily Beast executives say the portal is on its way to becoming profitable in two years, according to the Journal.

Newsweek declined to comment to the Journal. The Daily Beast and Newsweek could not immediately be reached for comment by Reuters outside of regular U.S. business hours.