The Street names Inman new editor in chief

TALKING BIZ NEWS EXCLUSIVE

William Inman, the former editor in chief of Institutional Investor magazine, has been named the editor in chief of TheStreet.com, Talking Biz News has learned.

Inman replaces Glenn Hall,  who joined TheStreet.com in June 2008. A news release has not been issued, but Inman has changed his title on his LinkedIn page. It is unclear at this point what Hall will be doing, but Talking Biz News has been told that the editorial staff is aware of the change.

UPDATE: In an e-mail to Talking Biz News late Tuesday, Hall said, “Bill, who I knew during my decade with Bloomberg News, has a depth of experience and journalistic integrity that I admire and respect. I look forward to seeing TheStreet prosper and grow under the leadership team being assembled by new CEO Elisabeth DeMarse. I will provide them with my full support during the transition.”

The news comes less than a week after the New York-based company, which was founded in 1996, named a new chief executive officer, Elisabeth DeMarse.

DeMarse knew Inman from their time together at Bloomberg, where DeMarse was head of marketing and launched a series of Bloomberg cartoon books with The New Yorker. She also ran Bloomberg Personal Finance.

Inman had left Institutional Investor in January. He joined the publication in March 2009. Before that, he spent 17-plus years at Bloomberg News, where he created a content publishing unit — eventually including magazines, books, and a public website. He had been a reporter for United Press International, where he was nominated for Pulitzer prizes for stories on organized crime, Russian import/export corruption and Pentagon contract abuses.

He was also once North American editor of  Business magazine, a joint venture between Conde Nast and the Financial Times.

Hall had been pushing TheStreet.com editorial content into other delivery formats, striking deals with newspaper companies to publish the financial news site’s content on the business sections of newspaper websites.

For example, in October TheStreet struck a deal with GateHouse, formerly Liberty Group Publishing, to publish its content across its 79 newspapers. Its newspapers include the Norwich (Conn.) Bulletin, the Register-Mail in Galesburg, Ill., the Rockford Register-Star in Rockford, Ill., and the Quincy (Mass.) Patriot-Ledger.

According to the company’s fourth quarter earnings call last week, the business desk service is now at more than 230 sites, including the Dallas Morning News, Denver Post and San Jose Mercury News.

TheStreet had revenue of $57.7 million in 2011 and a net loss of $8.2 million after losing $5.4 million in 2010. It has not recorded a profit for an entire fiscal year since 2008.

The company’s shares were trading at $1.89, up 4 cents, in late Tuesday afternoon trading.