Fortune has tapped former Wall Street Journal veteran Alan Murray to succeed editor Andy Serwer, who is out after eight years at the top of the pioneering business title and nearly three decades at Time Inc.
Murray, the president of the Pew Research Center, was deputy managing editor and online executive editor during his days at the Journal, and his digital expertise was a big reason for the switch.
Murray was brought aboard by two former Journal alums, Todd Larsen, Time Inc.’s executive vice president, and Chief Content Officer Norm Pearlstine . He said talks had only been underway “a couple of weeks.”
“They came to me and put it on the table,” Murray told The Post. “I wasn’t looking, but I consider it a tremendous challenge.”
Murray said Fortune has been in “a curious state” since May, when it relaunched a stand-alone site after losing its affiliation with CNN Money because of the impending spinoff from parent Time Warner.
“They are looking for someone to build that,” said Murray. “I promise you, you will see a lot of emphasis on digital.”
Fortune’s print edition was actually enjoying a decent first half with ad pages up 3 percent through June after several down years.
But there was a lot of shuffling of the editorial mix afoot. Recently, Serwer’s deputy managing editor, Stephanie Mehta, resigned only 18 months after she had been promoted to the job. At one point, she was seen as a potential successor to Serwer.
With the changing of the guard, Fortune, founded by Henry Luce some 85 years ago, is also expected to begin running ads on its cover in the fall for the first time. It will join Time and Sports Illustrated, which started running postage-stamp size kickers for brands like Verizon earlier this year.
Serwer did not return calls seeking comment, but insiders said he was surprised by the move, which was not attributed to any dramatic clash with the new regime.