Media entrepreneur Jimmy Finkelstein has raided Politico to hire a new publisher of The Hill.
Adam Prather was national ad director at Politico and is the new publisher of The Hill, a Capitol Hill must-read, which is owned by News Communications.
Prather replaces Francine McMahon, who is starting a Washington, DC-based public relations firm, The Capital Image Counsel.
At Politico since 2008, Prather is charged with integrated sales, events and marketing as well as circulation and ad revenue in a battle that has grown more tense as Robert Allbritton, son of the late Joe Allbritton, has been pumping more investments into the expansion of Politico.com in recent years.
Finkelstein has continued to own The Hill through his News Communications even though he has been slimming down his personal portfolio in recent years.
In early 2013, he was bought out of his minority stake in Prometheus Global Media, which publishes Adweek and The Hollywood Reporter. He also sold off the struggling FashionEct.com website — which he started with onetime Fairchild CEO Michael Coady — to a new owner.
Both of those were personal investments not tied to News Communications.
News Communications, where Finkelstein is the chairman, has sold off its weekly papers in New York City as well as Dan’s Papers in the Hamptons in recent years but still owns The Hill, which was cofounded by his late father, Jerry Finkelstein, in the mid-1990s.