What the Papers Are Saying

Wall Street Journal:

"Time Inc., in its latest bid to reinvigorate its flagship business magazine, named a new managing editor of Fortune.
Andy Serwer, a columnist and Fortune veteran, will take the post, effective immediately. He succeeds Eric Pooley, an award-winning journalist and former top editor at Time, who spent less than two years in the job. He will remain with the company to work on investigative projects.
In addition to his duties at Fortune, Mr. Serwer, 47 years old, is a regular contributor to CNN and CNNMoney, an Internet venture between Time Inc. and Time Warner Inc. sister company Turner Broadcasting. His experience working across multiple platforms was a key reason Time Inc. Editor in Chief John Huey selected him, company executives said.
A self-described iconoclast with little editing experience, Mr. Serwer has spent most of his career at Fortune. He said that expanding Fortune's presence on CNNMoney, which carries content from Time's other business titles as well, is a top priority.
"I feel like we can still do a lot more amazing things there," he said. "We're really at the very beginning."
The appointment, which came as a surprise to many Time Inc. insiders, is the latest in a series of personnel decisions by Mr. Huey aimed at re-energizing the publisher's marquee titles.
Unlike Mr. Serwer, Mr. Pooley operated as a typical editor behind the scenes. Company insiders said Mr. Huey wanted a Fortune editor who would actively use the media to promote the magazine."



New York Times:

Time Inc. abruptly removed Eric Pooley as the managing editor of Fortune magazine yesterday, and named Andrew Serwer, a senior editor at large, to succeed him, becoming the magazine’s third top editor in less than six years.
John Huey, editor in chief of Time Inc., a unit of Time Warner, gave no reason for the change, which was effective immediately, and did not return calls seeking comment.
Mr. Serwer said in an interview that Mr. Huey had told him over the weekend that he wanted him to take the helm.
“I found out about it a couple of days ago,” he said. “It was a surprise to me that John wanted me to do this job.” He added that Mr. Huey “has a way of making surprising moves sometimes.”
Time Inc. has been promoting the conversion of much of the content of its print magazines to other forms, and Mr. Serwer, 47, has been in the forefront of that effort. He writes for Fortune, writes a blog and appears regularly on CNN, becoming what many of his colleagues said they considered to be the public face of the magazine.
Colleagues said that Mr. Huey gave the impression of wanting to move Fortune to a new level of public awareness and create “buzz” and saw the opportunity to do so with Mr. Serwer.
“I have an understanding of how stories go from print to the Internet to TV and what works and the cycle of news, and that’s really important,” Mr. Serwer said. “I think that’s something he wanted to tap into.”
The move comes as Portfolio, a new monthly business magazine from Condé Nast, prepares for its debut in April. Portfolio has been poaching writers from several news organizations, including Fortune, which has lost three.
In the interview, Mr. Serwer said that he welcomed the competition from Portfolio and suggested its entry into the marketplace would reinvigorate the whole category of business magazines, which has been flagging in part because so much business information is available on the Internet. He said he had so little time to prepare for yesterday’s announcement that he had no specific plans for the magazine, but added that he and Mr. Huey tended to see eye to eye."



New York Post:

"In a move that one insider described as "a lightning bolt out of the blue," Eric Pooley was removed as the top editor of Fortune and replaced by Andy Serwer, a longtime staffer.
Serwer, 47, who has a daily gig on CNN and a 50,000-name mailing list for his Internet blog, is seen as a triple threat, which is considered a vital resource in the new Time Inc.
"I understand how media works across three different platforms," said Serwer. On his relative paucity of management experience, the 21-year veteran of Fortune said, "I'll be relying on a lot of good people, but I also think a lot of it is instinctive."
Pooley, who was seen as aloof and detached, frequently worked behind closed doors. At one point in February, he called the staff together to do a public mea culpa, and pledged a more open policy."