Norman Pearlstine

Norman Pearlstine
Born	Norman Pearlstine (1942-10-04) October 4, 1942 (age 82) Collegeville, Pennsylvania, US
Nationality	American
Education	A.B. Haverford College J.D. University of Pennsylvania
Spouse(s)	Charlene Pearlstine (divorced) Adele Wilson (divorced) Nancy Friday (divorced) Jane Boon
Parent(s)	Gladys Cohen Pearlstine Raymond Pearlstine
Family	Roy Hattersley (brother-in-law)

Norman Pearlstine (born October 4, 1942) is an American editor and media executive. He previously held senior positions at the Los Angeles Times, Time Inc, Bloomberg L.P., Forbes and The Wall Street Journal.

Early life and education

Pearlstine was born and raised in a Jewish family in Collegeville, Pennsylvania,^[1][2][3][4] the son of Gladys (née Cohen) and Raymond Pearlstine.^[5] His mother was chairman of Montgomery County Community College and his father was an attorney.^[5] He has two sisters: one of whom is literary agent Maggie Pearlstine Hattersley^[5] (married to British politician Roy Hattersley).^[6] He graduated from The Hill School and then received a Bachelor of Arts in history from Haverford College.^[7] He obtained a J.D. from the University of Pennsylvania^[7] and did postgraduate work at the law school of Southern Methodist University.^{[citation needed]}

Career

Pearlstine worked for the Wall Street Journal 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 from 1992 to 1994.^[8]

After leaving the Wall Street Journal he launched SmartMoney and was later the general partner of Friday Holdings (along with Richard Rainwater, Barry Diller 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.^[9] He was editor in chief of Time Inc. between January 1, 1995,^[10] and December 31, 2005.

Pearlstine was a senior adviser to the Carlyle Group's telecommunications and media group in New York.^[11][12] Pearlstine then joined Bloomberg L.P. in June 2008 as chief content officer, a newly created position.^[13] 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, the magazine Bloomberg L.P. acquired from McGraw-Hill in 2009, and as co-chairman of Bloomberg Government, a web-based subscription service devoted to coverage of the impact of government actions on business, including legislation, regulation, and contracts.^[14]

In October 2013, Pearlstine returned to Time Inc. as chief content officer, a position similar to the one he held at Bloomberg.^[15] In July 2017, he announced that he would be retiring from Time Inc.^[16]

On June 18, 2018, Pearlstine was named executive editor of the Los Angeles Times by owner Patrick Soon-Shiong.^[17] In October 2020, Pearlstine stepped down from his post at the Times.^[18]

Personal

Pearlstine has been married four times. During college, he married Charlene Pearlstine; they divorced while he was in law school.^[1] In 1973, he married Adele Wilson, a schoolteacher.^[1] In 1988, he married Nancy Friday;^[19] they divorced in 2005.^[20] In the same year, he married Jane Boon, an industrial engineer and the author of the novels Edge Play and Bold Strokes.^[21]

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.^[22] He was honored with the Gerald Loeb Lifetime Achievement Award for Distinguished Business and Financial Journalism in 2000.^[23] He received the National Press Foundation's Editor of the Year Award in 1989.

Pearlstine received the 2019 Medal for Lifetime Achievement in Journalism from the Poynter Institute during their annual Bowtie Ball on November 2, 2019.^[24]

Pearlstine served on the boards of the Tribeca Film Institute and the Watson Institute for International and Public Affairs. He was a member of the advisory board of the Craig Newmark Graduate School of Journalism at the City University of New York and was previously co-chairman of the Center on Communication Leadership and Policy at the USC Annenberg School for Communication and Journalism where he remains a member.^[25] He was on the boards of the Carnegie Corporation,^[26] and the Committee to Protect Journalists. He is also a member of the Council on Foreign Relations.^[27] and he serves on the board of the Reporters Committee for Freedom of the Press.^[28] From 2006 to 2011, Pearlstine was president and CEO of the American Academy in Berlin.^[29]

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.^[30] 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.

References

1. Gross, Michael (January 1995). "A Perfect Day for Banana Feet". Esquire. He was born in 1942 and raised in tiny Collegeville, Pennsylvania, one of several children in the only Jewish family in town
2. Silbiger, Steve (May 25, 2000). The Jewish Phenomenon: Seven Keys to the Enduring Wealth of a People. Taylor Trade Publishing. p. 191. ISBN 9781589794900.
3. Whitfield, Stephen J. (1997). American Space, Jewish Time. Routledge. p. 135. ISBN 9781315479569.
4. Silver, Rabbi Samuel (November 24, 1999). "Hebrew by the Byte". Jewish Post Indianapolis.
5. Times Herald: "Obituaries for July 11 2007 - Gladys Pearlstine" July 11, 2007
6. "The Feral Beast: Barbican brouhaha, lordly loves, artistic licence and". Independent.co.uk. 2 November 2013. Archived from the original on 2022-06-21.
7. Jewish Business News: "Norman Pearlstine Goes Back In Time" November 5, 2013
8. "Historical Society Names Leader". New York Times. October 2, 1992. Retrieved 2014-08-08. Mr. Pearlstine, who has been chairman of the Historical Society since April 1989, is to head a search committee to replace Dr. Barbara Knowles Debs, who retired yesterday after four years as president. ...
9. Turner, Richard (November 27, 1995). "The Pearlstine Shuffle". New York.
10. "NEWSBIOS.COM". www.newsbios.com. Retrieved 29 September 2018.
11. "Norman Pearlstine, Senior Advisor". Carlyle Team. Archived from the original on 2007-09-29. Retrieved June 18, 2012.
12. Carlyle bio Archived 2007-09-29 at the Wayback Machine
13. "Bloomberg Press Release". prnewswire.com (Press release). Retrieved 29 September 2018.
14. "Norman Pearlstine". Bloomberg Link. Archived from the original on 2011-07-23. Retrieved 2012-05-29.
15. Steinberg, Brian (31 October 2013). "Norman Pearlstine To Return To Time Inc". variety.com. Retrieved 29 September 2018.
16. Corinne, Grinapol (July 10, 2017). "Norman Pearlstine Is Retiring From Time Inc. - The last day for the vice chairman and former CCO is July 17". Adweek.
17. Chang, Meg James, Andrea (19 June 2018). "New Los Angeles Times owner Patrick Soon-Shiong names veteran journalist Norman Pearlstine executive editor - Los Angeles Times". Los Angeles Times. Retrieved 29 September 2018.
18. James, Meg (2020-10-05). "L.A. Times Editor Norman Pearlstine to step down". Los Angeles Times. Retrieved 2020-10-05.
19. "Nancy Friday Weds Norman Pearlstine". New York Times. July 12, 1988.
20. Connelley, Julie (April 3, 1995). "The Trophy Wife is Back - With brains No Longer Just A Walking Testament to Her Husband's Virility, Today's Trophy Must Be An Intellectual Companion As Well". Fortune.
21. "Jane Boon and Norman Pearlstine". New York Times. April 24, 2005.
22. "ASME Lifetime Achievement Award". magazine.org. Archived from the original on 3 January 2006. Retrieved 29 September 2018.
23. Lipinski, Lynn (May 23, 2000). "UCLA'S Anderson School Announces Winners of Loeb Competition and the Recipient of the Lifetime Achievement Award". UCLA. Archived from the original on February 2, 2019. Retrieved February 1, 2019.
24. "Poynter to honor Katie Couric and Norman Pearlstine at its Bowtie Ball on Nov. 2". 10 July 2019.
25. "Bio for USC Center on Communication Leadership and Policy".
26. "Carnegie appointment". carnegie.org. Archived from the original on 21 December 2005. Retrieved 29 September 2018.
27. "Membership Roster". Council on Foreign Relations. Retrieved 29 September 2018.
28. "RCFP Bio".
29. "The American Academy in Berlin: Trustees". Archived from the original on 2011-05-15. Retrieved 2011-06-11.
30. "Statement of Time Inc. on the Matthew Cooper Case". Time. 30 June 2005. Retrieved 29 September 2018 – via content.time.com.

External links

• Official website
• Appearances on C-SPAN