With just a few weeks to go until Barry Diller hands over the keys to Newsweek, new owner IBT Media named Jim Impoco as editor-in-chief.
IBT, headed by CEO Etienne Uzac, revealed last month that it had agreed to buy the foundering title from Diller’s IAC. It doesn’t officially take over until Oct. 1.
“The Newsweek brand is powerful and there is potential to grow it while enhancing the editorial and further modernizing the business,” said an IBT spokeswoman.
Impocco was deputy editor at Condé Nast’s now-defunct Portfolio. More recently, he was enterprise editor and executive editor of Thomson Reuters Digital.
While there are no plans to revive a domestic print edition of Newsweek, Impoco will produce a weekly tablet edition in addition to re-staffing the website that was gutted under IAC’s ownership.
IBT Media believes it can make Newsweek profitable again in the digital-only realm — although the licensing deals that produce print editions in overseas markets remain.