Variety’s publisher to step down
Charlie Koones will step down in March as president and publisher of Variety, the entertainment trade paper said Wednesday in a surprise announcement.
Koones, 45, called the split amicable and said he hoped to raise venture capital or other private-equity financing to pursue unspecified opportunities in the media business.
“With the right kind of funding behind me I’d like to acquire or build a venture in media and entertainment,” he said. “This is a really good time to be in this business. Chaos breeds opportunity.”
Neil Stiles, division managing director for parent company Reed Business Information in Britain, will succeed Koones, who also heads the entertainment group at Reed.
Koones said that he and Reed’s chief executive, Tad Smith, had agreed that he should stay on through the Academy Awards season, which provides an annual advertising windfall for Variety and other Hollywood publications geared toward insiders.
Koones started in a junior ad sales position 17 years ago at Weekly Variety in New York and came west a few years later to head the marketing department when the daily and weekly publications were combined.
He led the launch of Variety.com in 1998 and devoted the majority of his time in recent years to the website business. Koones said he had a special interest in digital media and might focus on an entrepreneurial venture in that area.
Koones has overseen several innovations on the print side of the business as well, including the launch of the Gotham edition nine years ago and, more recently, editions in China and Japan.
Variety’s ad-driven special sections, now totaling 250 a year, have generated significant revenue growth in recent years, the company said.
Koones spearheaded the 1999 acquisition of entertainment marketing research firm MarketCast, which competes with Nielsen NRG, a unit of Nielsen Co. He also oversees publications including Video Business, 411 Publishing, Tradeshow Week, Broadcasting & Cable, Multichannel News and Twice.
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