Institutional Investor undergoes reorganization, dismisses editor and international editor

A reorganization of Institutional Investor’s editorial staff was announced on Thursday that includes the dismissal of the editor in chief, international editor and two staff writers.

The changes include an overhaul of its website.

In a five-page memo to the staff obtained by Talking Biz News, chief content officer and group editorial director Kip McDaniel, who joined in August, wrote:

“As you will have heard, a number of our colleagues will be leaving Institutional Investor as part of this reorganization. Such transitions are always difficult, and I wish them the very best. For those of us who remain — and for the many new people who will be joining — this is an opportunity.”

Michael Peltz has been the editor of the 40-year-old monthly magazine, overseeing its print and digital properties. He was executive editor of the magazine from July 2009 to July 2011. Prior to that, he was editor of Institutional Investor’s Alpha, a magazine dedicated to the hedge fund industry.

International editor Tom Buerkle has spent more than 20 years in Europe covering finance, economics and politics for Institutional Investor and previously for the International Herald Tribune and Dow Jones.

An organizational chart that McDaniel sent to the staff shows that the magazine has openings for assistant managing editor, enterprise editor, research and data editor, London bureau chief, a staff writer and a research writer.

In his email, McDaniel said that the magazine will shift its focus back toward covering asset allocators and asset managers.

“That does not mean that we won’t cover prime brokers, bankers, public companies, or central banks,” he wrote. “It means that the bar to cover them will be higher.”

McDaniel also stated in the memo that the editorial staff would begin producing more content for its website and boost its events business.

“We need to be more willing to report small stories along the way and build those small stories into larger, analytic articles,” he wrote. “A 250-word piece can increase the value of a paycheck or portfolio, or give the reader social currency. There is nothing inherently special about longer content, and there is nothing inherently wrong with shorter content.”

He later added:

“Every journalist should consistently be publishing on every platform. I’ll take it a step further, too: Every editor, including me, should also write. This is how modern newsrooms operate.”

McDaniel had been editor of Chief Investment Officer magazine before leaving in July. He brought along CIO managing editor Leanna Orr to Institutional Investor. She is in charge of network content.

The magazine was started with money from Gerald Bronfman, whose family owned the Seagram distilling company. The first issue of The Institutional Investor, as it was originally known, was published in March 1967.