Guggenheim taps Ross Levinsohn for digital media unit

Former Yahoo and News Corp. executive Ross Levinsohn has been named chief executive of Guggenheim Digital Media, a unit of private equity firm Guggenheim Partners.

In his new role, Levinsohn will oversee Guggenheim’s publishing assets, including trade outlets Billboard and the Hollywood Reporter. He will also consult with Guggenheim on its other assets, among them Dick Clark Productions, which it acquired last year. Guggenheim is also the majority owner of the Dodgers.

In a statement, Guggenheim Partners President Todd Boehly said the newly created digital media unit would “play an integral role in developing our iconic portfolio of existing media and entertainment assets, as well as identifying new, groundbreaking investments and partnerships in the music, media, technology, and digital entertainment spaces.”

That’s code for we have a lot of money and we’re going to be buying things.

In his statement, Levinsohn said: “I look forward to identifying new opportunities for growth as the media and technology industries continue to rapidly evolve.”

Guggenheim also announced it has bought out the stake held in the trade publications held by Pluribus Capital and that Jimmy Finkelstein is exiting Prometheus, the unit that housed those magazines.

Levinsohn served as interim CEO of Yahoo and previously headed its global media unit. He was a candidate for the top job at Yahoo that eventually went to Google executive Marissa Mayer.

He also had a long stint at News Corp. overseeing parts of its digital media business. He is also a member of the board of directors of Los Angeles Times parent Tribune Co.

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Follow Joe Flint on Twitter @JBFlint.