Categories: OLD Media Moves

Candidates to become next BusinessWeek editor

Marketwatch.com media columnist Jon Friedman fingers former Fortune managing editor Eric Pooley and former Conde Nast Portfolio editor Joanne Lipman as two prime candidates to become the next editor of BusinessWeek magazine.

Current editor Stephen Adler plans to leave once the magazine’s acquisition by Bloomberg LP closes in December.

Friedman writes, “Both would be fine choices. Pooley, who writes columns for Bloomberg, edited Fortune a few years ago. Lipman was the top editor of Portfolio, a business magazine that Conde Nast stopped publishing a few months ago.

“A third possibility is Jim Kelly, who was the managing editor of Time magazine for many years. If Bloomberg decided to pursue a well regarded editor from outside the business-news realm, Kelly would fit in well. He has also been assisting Norman Pearlstine, Bloomberg’s chief of content, with the transition. Pearlstine has been placed in charge of absorbing BusinessWeek.

“In addition, don’t rule out Bob Safian, the respected editor of Fast Company who edited Money magazine under Pearlstine. Then again, if Pearlstine decided to hire someone from within BusinessWeek’s ranks, he could tap Ellen Pollock, a former senior editor at The Journal and one of Adler’s lieutenants.

“Another possibility is John Byrne, who was a finalist when Adler got the job several years ago. Byrne was an admired cover-story writer at BusinessWeek and popular figure at the magazine for many years before leaving to take over as editor of Fast Company. When Adler took the reins, he recruited Byrne and placed him in charge of BusinessWeek’s Internet operations.”