Former Time Inc. Vet Klingensmith Named Star Trib Publisher; 30 Newsroom Staffers Laid Off

Star Tribune

Minneapolis’ Star Tribune has named former Time Inc. (NYSE: TWX) exec Michael Klingensmith as its new publisher, the paper reported. He replaces Chris Harte, who stepped down as chairman and publisher last June as the company was working its way through bankruptcy. Separately from Klingensmith’s hire, the paper, which emerged from Chapter 11 last September, also said it was laying off 30 newsroom support staffers, the AP reported. No reporter or editor posts were lost in the job cuts.

Klingensmith was most recently a managing director at M&A adviser AdMedia Partners, where he has been since June 2008. He held a number of posts during his roughly two decades at Time Inc. In 1989, he helped create Entertainment Weekly; before that, Klingensmith was Time Inc.’s CFO. He ended his tenure at the publishing company as president of Sports Illustrated, a post he held from 1998 to 2002.

While the paper has exited bankruptcy, it still faces the same problems with ad revenues and costs plaguing the rest of the industry. Mike Sweeney, the current Star Trib chairman said that Klingensmith was chosen as the publisher in the hope that, despite his traditional media background, he would be able to update the newspaper’s business model.

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