Jim Friedlich

Last updated
Jim Friedlich
Headshot of Jim Friedlich during the Knight Media Forum 2019 (46506272564).jpg
Born (1957-02-22) February 22, 1957 (age 67)
Montclair, New Jersey, U.S.
Education Dartmouth College
Wesleyan University (BA)
Stanford University (MBA)
Occupation(s)Chief Executive Officer and Executive Director of the Lenfest Institute
Spouse
​
(m. 1991)​
Children Max Wolf Friedlich

James Friedlich (born February 2, 1957) is an American media and philanthropy executive. [1] He is chief executive officer and executive director of the Lenfest Institute for Journalism, a non-profit organization that supports innovative journalism initiatives nationwide and is the owner of The Philadelphia Inquirer. [2] He is on the board of directors of digital jobs marketplace Dice Holdings, Inc. (DHI, NYSE), and is an investor in several digital media and technology companies. [3] [4] [5] Friedlich held senior operating positions at Dow Jones and The Wall Street Journal and was a board director of CNBC International. He was a seed investor in Business Insider before its sale to Axel Springer in 2015. [6] [7]

Contents

Career

Dow Jones and Company

From 1990–2000, Friedlich managed the global advertising sales, consumer marketing and business development of various Dow Jones & Company newspapers, magazines, web sites, TV channels and conferences. [8] [9] He had business responsibility for all WSJ foreign-language print editions as well as full global sales, marketing and business development responsibility for all Dow Jones international holdings on the Internet, on TV, and in print. Among his responsibilities were The Wall Street Journal , The Wall Street Journal Americas – the largest-circulation Journal edition outside of the United States – and CNBC Europe and CNBC Asia, as well as the local language editions of The Wall Street Journal in Europe, Asia, Latin America and the Middle East. [10] [11]

From 1999-2000, Friedlich headed Business Development for Dow Jones' Electronic Publishing Group, including WSJ.com, Dow Jones Newswires, and Dow Jones Indexes. Friedlich played key roles in the creation of a number of new print, Internet, TV and conference properties while at Dow Jones. He was responsible for the international business launch of WSJ.com, co-founded The Wall Street Journal Americas, and launched Dow Jones Conferences, the company’s first events business. [12] He served on the board of directors of several international media companies and publications including CNBC Europe, CNBC Asia, Nikkei International, Vedomosti , a Russian language business newspaper joint venture with the Financial Times , America Economia , and the Far Eastern Economic Review . He also served as a managing director of Handelsblatt-Dow Jones, GmbH, a joint venture with Germany’s leading business publisher. [13]

ZelnickMedia

Friedlich co-founded New York-based media private equity firm ZelnickMedia (now ZMC) with Wesleyan University classmate Strauss Zelnick in 2001 as one of four original partners. [14] [15] From 2001-2011, Friedlich specialized in investments in publishing, business-to-business media, professional information and marketing services. He was integrally involved in investments in Take-Two Interactive Software (TTWO), [16] Alloy Media, [17] ITN Networks, [18] and Time-Life. [19] [20] Friedlich served from 2005-2013 as chairman of the board of Naylor LLC, a North American business-to-business publisher and events company before its sale to RLJ Equity Partners in 2013, the private equity firm of BET founder Bob Johnson. [21] [22]

Empirical Media Advisors

Friedlich founded Empirical Media Advisors with Jack Griffin in 2011. He was appointed CEO in 2014 when Griffin left to become CEO of Tribune Publishing, an Empirical client. [23] [24] Empirical advises news and media companies on their digital transition, and has worked closely with The Wall Street Journal, Reuters, Bloomberg, Tribune Publishing, The Philadelphia Inquirer and other news organizations in the U.S. and abroad. According to press reports, the firm advised investors on the prospective purchase of the New York Daily News [25] and The Boston Globe , [26] and was instrumental in the digital-first redesign of The Dallas Morning News . [27] Empirical has been quoted widely on media and journalism topics, including by The Wall Street Journal, Fortune magazine, and The Washington Post . [28] [29] [30] [31] [32] [33] Empirical Media was acquired by cable television pioneer H.F. “Gerry” Lenfest who donated the company to the Institute for Journalism in New Media, later renamed The Lenfest Institute for Journalism. [34] Empirical Media and its team of advisors have been fully integrated into the Institute, offering guidance to news organizations around the world.

Digital Media Investments

Friedlich was active as an early-stage investor in digital content, news and advertising technology, often co-investing with former Wall Street Journal executives Gordon Crovitz and Craig Forman through NextNews Ventures, an early-stage private investment fund. [35] Friedlich was a seed investor in Business Insider, with Henry Blodget, Kevin Ryan, Crovitz and others, and in subsequent investment rounds with Jeff Bezos. [36] Press accounts have cited NextNews Ventures investments in Nuzzel, a social media curation tool, with Andreesen Horowitz, [37] Poncho [a weather chat bot] with Betaworks, Lerer Hippeau Ventures, Comcast, and RRE Ventures, [38] Watchup, a news video player, with Tribune Media, [39] and Skift, a travel news company, with Lerer Hippeau. [40]

The Lenfest Institute for Journalism

Friedlich was named in September 2016 to lead The Lenfest Institute for Journalism, a non-profit organization that supports innovative news initiatives nationwide, with a special emphasis on metropolitan areas, such as Philadelphia. Founded by cable TV pioneer H.F. Lenfest, the Institute’s mission is to develop effective business models for journalism on the local and metro level in the digital age. The institute is the parent company of the Philadelphia Media Network, the owner of The Philadelphia Inquirer. [41] The Institute and the Knight Foundation announced in February 2017 a $4.8 million three-year grant program designed to assist over a dozen major U.S. news organizations in their digital transformation. [42] [43]

Personal

Friedlich attended Dartmouth College, is a graduate of Wesleyan University with a BA in English magna cum laude, and received his MBA from the Stanford University Graduate School of Business. [44] He serves on the board of directors of The Door, a New York-based youth services organization; [45] the Bard College Center for Civic Engagement; [46] and WFMU, a public radio station.

Friedlich lives with his wife Melissa Stern, [47] [48] an arts journalist and studio artist, and their son Max Friedlich, a playwright and television writer. [49]

See also

Related Research Articles

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Dow Jones & Company</span> American publishing and financial information company

Dow Jones & Company, Inc. is an American publishing firm owned by News Corp and led by CEO Almar Latour.

The Wall Street Journal (WSJ), also referred to simply as theJournal, is an American newspaper based in New York City, with a focus on business and finance. It operates on a subscription model, requiring readers to pay for access to its articles and content. The Journal is published six days a week by Dow Jones & Company, a division of News Corp. The first issue was published on July 8, 1889.

Business journalism is the part of journalism that tracks, records, analyzes, and interprets the business, economic and financial activities and changes that take place in societies. Topics widely cover the entire purview of all commercial activities related to the economy.

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Barron's is an American weekly magazine/newspaper published by Dow Jones & Company, a division of News Corp, since 1921.

The Wall Street Journal Europe was a daily English-language newspaper that covered global and regional business news for Europe, the Middle East, and Africa (EMEA). Published by the Dow Jones & Company, a News Corp company, it formed as a part of the business publication franchise that included The Wall Street Journal, The Wall Street Journal Asia, and The Wall Street Journal Online. The final print edition of the newspaper was published on 29 September 2017.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Gerald Loeb Award</span> American journalism award

The Gerald Loeb Awards, also referred to as the Gerald Loeb Awards for Distinguished Business and Financial Journalism, is a recognition of excellence in journalism, especially in the fields of business, finance and the economy. The award was established in 1957 by Gerald Loeb, a founding partner of E.F. Hutton & Co. Loeb's intention in creating the award was to encourage reporters to inform and protect private investors as well as the general public in the areas of business, finance and the economy.

MarketWatch is a website that provides financial information, business news, analysis, and stock market data. It is a subsidiary of Dow Jones & Company, a property of News Corp, along with The Wall Street Journal and Barron's.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">L. Gordon Crovitz</span> American journalist

Louis Gordon Crovitz is an American media executive and advisor to media and technology companies. He is a former publisher of The Wall Street Journal who also served as executive vice-president of Dow Jones and launched the company's Consumer Media Group, which under his leadership integrated the global print, online, digital, TV and other editions of The Wall Street Journal, MarketWatch.com and Barron's across news, advertising, marketing and other functions. He stepped down from those positions in December 2007, when News Corp. completed its acquisition of Dow Jones. He writes a weekly column in The Wall Street Journal, titled "Information Age."

<i>The Record</i> (Stockton, California) Newspaper in Stockton, California

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  45. ↑ "Staff & Board | The Door". www.door.org. Retrieved 2017-03-15.
  46. ↑ College, Bard. "Bard Center for Civic Engagement (CCE)". www.bard.edu. Retrieved 2017-03-15.
  47. ↑ Stern, Melissa. "Melissa Stern". melissa-stern.com. Retrieved 2017-03-15.
  48. ↑ "Melissa Stern – Hyperallergic". Hyperallergic. Retrieved 2017-03-15.
  49. ↑ "The Life of Man: Max Friedlich". tv.esquire.com. Retrieved 2017-03-15.


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