New head of FiLife named; Kansas to remain as editor at large

Peter Kafka, who writes the Media Memo blog for the All Things Digital site, reports Tuesday that the personal finance Web site FiLife, a joint venture between IAC and Dow Jones & Co., has replaced president Dave Kansas.

Kafka writes, “The company has brought in Ezra Kucharz, formerly an executive at online games company Oberon Media and at NBC’s iVillage, as president. He replaces Dave Kansas, a business news veteran. Kansas will stay on as an editor-at-large; he has a personal finance book due out in January.

“FiLife, which is supposed to be geared toward young folks who spend more time browsing the Web than looking at their 401(k), has had a short but troubled existence. It finally launched in June after more than a year of fits and starts. It was originally supposed to have lots of blog-like entries from professional writers, and eventually moved into a more service-oriented comparison shopping engine for financial products.

“You could argue that economic turmoil could make a site like this particularly valuable for its target audience, but that doesn’t appear to be the case: Compare the performance of the site with Consumerist.com, a Gawker Media blog that’s now up for sale.”

Read more here. Kansas is a past president of the Society of American Business Editors and Writers.