Norman Pearlstine (born October 4, 1942) is an American editor and media executive. He previously held senior positions at the ''
Los Angeles Times
The ''Los Angeles Times'' (abbreviated as ''LA Times'') is a daily newspaper that started publishing in Los Angeles in 1881. Based in the LA-adjacent suburb of El Segundo since 2018, it is the sixth-largest newspaper by circulation in the U ...
'', Time Inc, Bloomberg L.P., ''Forbes'' and ''The Wall Street Journal''.
Early life and education
Pearlstine was born and raised in a
Jewish
Jews ( he, יְהוּדִים, , ) or Jewish people are an ethnoreligious group and nation originating from the Israelites Israelite origins and kingdom: "The first act in the long drama of Jewish history is the age of the Israelites""The ...
family in
Collegeville, Pennsylvania,
the son of Gladys (née Cohen) and Raymond Pearlstine.
[Times Herald: "Obituaries for July 11 2007 - Gladys Pearlstine"]
July 11, 2007 His mother was chairman of
Montgomery County Community College and his father was an attorney.
He has two sisters: one of whom is literary agent Maggie Pearlstine Hattersley
(married to British politician
Roy Hattersley). He graduated from
The Hill School
The Hill School (commonly known as The Hill) is a coeducational preparatory boarding school located on a campus in Pottstown, Pennsylvania, about northwest of Philadelphia. The Hill is part of the Ten Schools Admissions Organization (TSAO). ...
and then received a
Bachelor of Arts
Bachelor of arts (BA or AB; from the Latin ', ', or ') is a bachelor's degree awarded for an undergraduate program in the arts, or, in some cases, other disciplines. A Bachelor of Arts degree course is generally completed in three or four year ...
in history from
Haverford College.
[Jewish Business News: "Norman Pearlstine Goes Back In Time"]
November 5, 2013 He obtained a
J.D. from the
University of Pennsylvania
The University of Pennsylvania (also known as Penn or UPenn) is a private research university in Philadelphia. It is the fourth-oldest institution of higher education in the United States and is ranked among the highest-regarded universitie ...
and did postgraduate work at the law school of
Southern Methodist University
, mottoeng = "The truth will make you free"
, established =
, type = Private research university
, accreditation = SACS
, academic_affiliations =
, religious_affiliation = United Methodist Church
, president = R. Gerald Turner
, ...
.
Career
Pearlstine worked for the ''
Wall Street Journal
''The Wall Street Journal'' is an American business-focused, international daily newspaper based in New York City, with international editions also available in Chinese and Japanese. The ''Journal'', along with its Asian editions, is published ...
'' from 1968 to 1992, except for a two-year period, 1978–1980, when he was an executive editor for Forbes magazine. At the ''Journal'', he was a staff reporter in Dallas, Detroit, and Los Angeles (1968–73); Tokyo bureau chief (1973–76); managing editor of ''The Asian Wall Street Journal'' (1976–78); national editor (1980–81); editor and publisher of ''The Wall Street Journal/Europe'' (1982–83); managing editor (1983–91); and executive editor (1991–92).
He was interim president of the
New-York Historical Society
The New-York Historical Society is an American history museum and library in New York City, along Central Park West between 76th and 77th Streets, on the Upper West Side of Manhattan. The society was founded in 1804 as New York's first museum ...
from 1992 to 1994.
After leaving the ''Wall Street Journal'' he launched ''
SmartMoney'' and was later the general partner of Friday Holdings (along with
Richard Rainwater,
Barry Diller
Barry Charles Diller (born February 2, 1942) is an American businessman. He is Chairman and Senior Executive of IAC and Expedia Group and founded the Fox Broadcasting Company and USA Broadcasting. Diller was inducted into the Television Hall o ...
and
Paramount Pictures chief
Martin S. Davis), a multimedia investment company, prior to succeeding
Jason McManus as editor in chief at ''Time Inc.'' in 1995, the first outsider in the position.
He was
editor in chief of Time Inc. between January 1, 1995,
and December 31, 2005.
Pearlstine was a senior adviser to the
Carlyle Group's telecommunications and media group in New York.
Pearlstine then joined
Bloomberg L.P.
Bloomberg L.P. is a privately held financial, software, data, and media company headquartered in Midtown Manhattan, New York City. It was co-founded by Michael Bloomberg in 1981, with Thomas Secunda, Duncan MacMillan, Charles Zegar, and a 1 ...
in June 2008 as chief content officer, a newly created position. In that role Pearlstine was charged with seeking growth opportunities for Bloomberg's television, radio, magazine, and online products and to make the most of the company's news operations. Pearlstine also was chairman of
Bloomberg Businessweek
''Bloomberg Businessweek'', previously known as ''BusinessWeek'', is an American weekly business magazine published fifty times a year. Since 2009, the magazine is owned by New York City-based Bloomberg L.P. The magazine debuted in New York City ...
, the magazine Bloomberg L.P. acquired from McGraw-Hill in 2009, and as co-chairman of
Bloomberg Government
Bloomberg Government is a division of Bloomberg Industry Group that provides data-driven decision tools, news, and analytics in a digital workspace for professionals who influence government action.
History
Bloomberg Government launched in 2011 ...
, a web-based subscription service devoted to coverage of the impact of government actions on business, including legislation, regulation, and contracts.
In October 2013, Pearlstine returned to
Time Inc.
Time Inc. was an American worldwide mass media corporation founded on November 28, 1922, by Henry Luce and Briton Hadden and based in New York City. It owned and published over 100 magazine brands, including its namesake ''Time'', ''Sports Illu ...
as chief content officer, a position similar to the one he held at Bloomberg. In July 2017, he announced that he would be retiring from ''Time Inc.''
On June 18, 2018, Pearlstine was named executive editor of the ''
Los Angeles Times
The ''Los Angeles Times'' (abbreviated as ''LA Times'') is a daily newspaper that started publishing in Los Angeles in 1881. Based in the LA-adjacent suburb of El Segundo since 2018, it is the sixth-largest newspaper by circulation in the U ...
'' by owner
Patrick Soon-Shiong
Patrick Soon-Shiong (born July 29, 1952) is a Chinese-South African transplant surgeon, billionaire businessman, bioscientist, and media proprietor. He is the inventor of the drug Abraxane, which became known for its efficacy against lung, bre ...
. In October 2020, Pearlstine stepped down from his post at the ''Times.''
Personal
Pearlstine has been married four times. During college, he married Charlene Pearlstine; they divorced while he was in law school.
[ In 1973, he married Adele Wilson, a schoolteacher.] In 1988, he married Nancy Friday; they divorced in 2005. In 2005, he married Jane Boon, an industrial engineer and the author of the novel ''Edge Play''.
Recognition
In January 2005, the American Society of Magazine Editors named Pearlstine the recipient of its Lifetime Achievement Award and inducted him into the Magazine Editors’ Hall of Fame. He was honored with the Gerald Loeb Lifetime Achievement Award for Distinguished Business and Financial Journalism in 2000. He received the National Press Foundation's Editor of the Year Award in 1989.
Pearlstine is expected to receive 2019 Medal for Lifetime Achievement in Journalism from the Poynter Institute during their annual Bowtie Ball on November 2, 2019.
Pearlstine is on the boards of the Tribeca Film Institute
The Tribeca Film Institute (TFI) is a year-round non-profit arts organization founded by Robert De Niro, Jane Rosenthal, and Craig Hatkoff, based in New York.
The Tribeca Film Institute was created in 2003 in the wake of September 11, 2001. TFI t ...
and the Watson Institute for International and Public Affairs
The Watson Institute for International and Public Affairs is an interdisciplinary research center at Brown University in Providence, Rhode Island. Its mission is to promote a just and peaceful world through research, teaching, and public engagement ...
. He is a member of the advisory board of the and is co-chairman of the Center on Communication Leadership and Policy at the USC Annenberg School for Communication and Journalism
The USC Annenberg School for Communication and Journalism comprises a School of Communication and a School of Journalism at the University of Southern California
, mottoeng = "Let whoever earns the palm bear it"
, religious_affiliation = N ...
. He was on the boards of the Carnegie Corporation
The Carnegie Corporation of New York is a philanthropic fund established by Andrew Carnegie in 1911 to support education programs across the United States, and later the world. Carnegie Corporation has endowed or otherwise helped to establis ...
, and the Committee to Protect Journalists. He is also a member of the Council on Foreign Relations. From 2006 to 2011, Pearlstine was president and CEO of the American Academy in Berlin
The American Academy in Berlin is a private, independent, nonpartisan research and cultural institution in Berlin dedicated to sustaining and enhancing the long-term intellectual, cultural, and political ties between the United States and Germany ...
.
Pearlstine was briefly part of the controversy surrounding Matthew Cooper when, after the United States Supreme Court refused to review adverse lower court decisions, he gave Cooper's notes to the independent prosecutor investigating the outing of Valerie Plame as a covert agent of the CIA. From this experience, Pearlstine wrote a book entitled ''Off the Record: The Press, the Government, and the War over Anonymous Sources'' for Farrar, Straus and Giroux
Farrar, Straus and Giroux (FSG) is an American book publishing company, founded in 1946 by Roger Williams Straus Jr. and John C. Farrar. FSG is known for publishing literary books, and its authors have won numerous awards, including Pulitzer ...
.
References
External links
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{{DEFAULTSORT:Pearlstine, Norman
Living people
1942 births
Haverford College alumni
University of Pennsylvania Law School alumni
American magazine editors
American media executives
Jewish American writers
Bloomberg L.P. people
The Carlyle Group people
Writers from Philadelphia
The Wall Street Journal people
Time (magazine) people
Los Angeles Times people
New-York Historical Society
Journalists from Pennsylvania
The Hill School alumni
Jewish American journalists
21st-century American newspaper editors
Gerald Loeb Lifetime Achievement Award winners
21st-century American Jews