Longtime biz journalist Ledbetter dies at 60

Longtime business journalist James Ledbetter has died at the age of 60.

He most recently was editor of thought leadership at KPMG.

He had earlier launched paid newsletter FIN, focused on decentralized finance and fintech. He was also executive editor of The New York Observer.

“Jim was a deep thinker and a brilliant writer, awe-inspiring traits that influenced the wide-ranging beats he covered in his career,” said Holly Sraeel, who took over FIN after Ledbetter was hired at KPMG. “It didn’t matter whether it was politics, technology, business or the economy, Jim could always see with great clarity what was coming. His insane recall of the minutiae of historical events gave meaningful context to the subjects he wrote about. Jim was a fabulous storyteller, a keen listener and an even better friend. I know; our friendship dates back to childhood, and our intersecting career paths kept us in close proximity to each other.”

Ledbetter joined the Observer from Clarim Media, where he served as chief content officer.  Prior to this, he was the head of content at Sequoia Capital, editor in chief of Inc. magazine, editor of Reuters.com, and held key positions at Slate, Time and Fortune.

In his previous tenure at Observer, he created the storied “Off the Record” column, and his writing has appeared in The New Yorker, The New York Times, The Washington Post, The Nation, The New Republic and dozens of others.

Ledbetter is the author of six books and serves on the board of the non-profit Economic Hardship Reporting Project.

Early in his career, he spent eight years on the staff of The Village Voice and was a speechwriter for U.S. Rep. Liz Holtzman, who later became comptroller of New York City.