Fiscal Times tight
Web site names new editor amid job cuts
T HE
Fiscal Times, a digital publication funded by billionaire Peter
G. Peterson, is changing course: Veteran Editor Jackie Leo has been replaced by her longtime executive editor, Yuval Rosenberg.
Under Leo, the former top editor at Reader’s Digest and an editorial director at Meredith Corp. , the publication had developed most of its own stories devoted to fiscal issues.
Now, under Rosenberg, the publication is going to aggregate largely from other sources and produce a daily digital newsletter.
Leo, who launched the site in 2010, said her departure was voluntary.
“The Petersons have been very good to me,” she said. “I don’t think any venture capitalist would have been as patient, but at some point you have to try to make money.”
Rosenberg, a veteran of Newsweek and Fortune who has spent the past six years at the Fiscal Times, would not comment on the layoffs that hit the publication last week — but acknowledged there were some.
“We’ve always had a small staff — now it’s a little smaller,” he said. “We’re making some changes, trying to adapt to the ongoing digital and mobile revolution.”
The publication will narrow its focus to issues pertaining to the federal budget, taxes, health care, Social Security and the national debt.
Peterson, a former Commerce Secretary under President Nixon, made his fortune as a co-founder of the Blackstone Group, which netted him $12.9 billion when it went public. He endowed the Peter G. Peterson Foundation with $1 billion in 2008. The Fiscal Times is run apart from the foundation.
Guccione reveal
Bob Guccione Jr. is back in the publishing game with an upscale luxury travel site, Wonderlusttravel.com.
He’s landed the American Express Platinum Card as the sole advertiser for the first six weeks.
The site seeks to capture the “joy and wonder of the whole travel experience,” Guccione said.
Published daily, the site, which went live on Tuesday with a range of unconventional stories, including the “100 Worst Beaches in the World” and what he dubs as the best restaurant in Italy, called La Frateria. “It’s in a 12th century convent that’s been converted into a drug rehabilitation complex,” Guccione said.
Part of the rehabilitation requires patients to work the land — and some of the garden ingredients they grow are used in its open-to-the-public restaurant. “It’s not just a travel story — it says something about the human condition,” Guccione. said.
The son of late Penthouse founder Bob Guccione Sr., the younger Guccione was estranged from him for years because he wanted to shut down Spin. Dad lent him some of the initial money for the indie youth culture music magazine — but wanted to turn off the funding when Penthouse’s fortunes took a dip.
Instead of closing the title, the youn- ger Guccione found different backer,
Stephen Swid. Along with another backer, the team kept Spin going until it turned profitable.
Guccione Jr. then sold it in 1997 for $42.5 million — about 29 times Ebitda, he said.
Several years before his father’s 2010 death from cancer, dad and son reconciled.
With the money he pocketed from Spin, he started men’s title Gear in 1998, but it fizzled in the post-9/11 ad downturn. It closed in 2003.
Next up, he pulled together some backers who bought Discover from Walt Disney in 2005, but two years later he clashed with the backers and was ousted as CEO.
His latest venture, he said, is financed primarily with his own money.