In a big shakeup at Maxim publisher Alpha Media, industry veteran Jack Kliger is coming on board as “executive chairman” and taking over from just-ousted CEO Joseph Mangione.
As the de facto chief executive, Kliger becomes the fifth person to hold the top spot in the past four years since Quadrangle Capital Partners took over what was then a three-magazine company from British publishing maverick Felix Dennis.
In 2009, Quadrangle defaulted on its debt to creditors, including lender Cerberus Capital Partners, who took over Alpha Media in a debt-for-equity swap.
By the time of the takeover, Stuff and Blender had been closed and Alpha consisted of Maxim and its related spin-off offerings in the digital world.
The news of Kliger’s arrival and Mangione’s exit was revealed to staffers this afternoon.
As part of the change, Ben Madden, who had been the chief revenue officer, will become president. No one is getting the CEO title.
An internal memo said only that Mangione “will be leaving as part of the leadership reorganization.”
Kliger was a former CEO of Hachette Filipacchi Media, which published Elle, Woman’s Day and auto enthusiast titles before selling them to Hearst.
Earlier in his career, Kliger had been a top executive in the Newhouse empire at Condé Nast and Parade Publications.
More recently, Kliger has been running his own publishing consulting firm, Kliger Media. In that role, he has been the acting CEO of TV Guide for the past three years, although he never took the official title. Instead, he was portrayed as a senior adviser to the investment firm that purchased it from Gemstar.
In an unusual twist, he is apparently going to continue in the role of running the 2-million-circulation TV Guide while he takes on added responsibilities for Maxim, with a circulation of 2.5 million.
Maxim saw its ad pages tumble 15.9 percent year-over-year in 2001 to 504.25 pages.