Ed Felsenthal, an ex-Wall Street Journal deputy managing editor and No. 2 to Tina Brown at the Daily Beast, is joining Time as the new managing editor of Time.com, Media Ink has learned.
Felsenthal left Newsweek/Daily Beast at the end of 2011, and has most recently been consulting on the launch of Al-Monitor.com, a Levant Media-owned site that covers the Middle East.
He joins at a time of considerable ferment at Time, with a number of high-profile staffers — especially on the Internet side — heading for the exits. Felsenthal’s first task may be to calm the restless troops and quickly plug the holes that have opened up.
Despite the growth of Time.com and the tumult in the print world, the digital side still feels like a second-class citizen, sources say.
The news that parent Time Warner is going to spin off Time Inc. into a separately traded public company “certainly added to the uncertainty,” a source says.
Felsenthal is a veteran journalist with experience balancing print and digital. He spent 10 years at the Wall Street Journal and rose to deputy managing editor, where he played a big role in developing the Personal Journal section.
He consulted as an adviser to Joanne Lipman when she was running Condé Nast’s now-defunct Portfolio before joining the Daily Beast in March 2008 as the second person hired by Brown.
Felsenthal succeeds Cathy Sharick, the current managing editor of Time.com, who has been with the company for 10 years. Her last day is expected to be Monday.
She is among 11 staffers who agreed to take exit packages but didn’t depart right away.
Davina Anthony, who was the design director of Time.com, has already jumped to Bloomberg LP, where she will be the creative director for Bloomberg Business week’s website as well as Bloomberg.com.
Tim Morrison is another senior editor from the dot.com side who took the buyout. No replacement has been named.
Howard Chua-Eoan, who was the Time news director for 13 years and spent nearly 30 years at the company, also thought it was a good time to take the money.
However, the company begged Chua-Eoan to put off his departure for a month. He’s now expected to leave at the end of April, sources said.
Despite the turmoil, Time Managing Editor Rick Stengel has filled a number of posts on the dot.com side. Zeke Miller, from BuzzFeed, is joining this week in the Washington bureau as a political reporter.
Stengel also lured Sean Noyce, who was Newsweek’s global iPad design director.
Felsenthal should have no trouble filling the remaining slots. He starts April 17.
“I’ve been spoiled over the years by working with some of the greats in the business and couldn’t be more excited to join Rick, Nancy [Gibbs] and the team at Time,” he said when reached on vacation in the Caribbean.
Bauer cuts
Bauer Publications pruned five editorial jobs at InTouch and Life & Style as the newsstand continues to take it on the chin.
Among those departing are Michael Todd, executive director of photography, and Design Director Nicole Tereza.
In recent months, the magazines have frequently run similar stories, sparking rumors that the staffs have all but merged.
Dan Wakeford, the editorial director of both, insisted otherwise.
“The magazines I would say are more distinct than they’ve ever been,” he said. Of the changes this week, he said, “It’s minimal restructuring compared to anything else other magazines are doing. “
Swartz upped
To nobody’s great surprise, Steve Swartz moved from chief operating officer of Hearst to CEO, replacing taciturn 28-year veteran Frank Bennack Jr..
The big question is how open the new regime will be with the press. One source said the Hearst family shunned publicity in the years after the infamous Patty Hearst kidnapping, instructing its p.r. people to keep the family name out of the papers and concentrate only on its brands.
Despite his role as press baron, company founder William Randolph Hearst had a prickly relationship with the media. He despised his fictionalized portrayal in the 1941 film “Citizen Kane” and prevented reviews from appearing in Hearst papers. Since then, the family has mellowed and even allowed a screening of the film at Hearst Castle in California last year.
Swartz better hope his investments — like a complete overhaul of the Hearst-owned Albany Times-Union presses — pay off. He also is counting on pal David Carey to keep the magazine empire on a growth curve after it slowed under Cathie Black.
Swartz takes over officially on June 1.