Janice Min to Head Billboard, THR as Co-President of Entertainment Group for Guggenheim

Guggenheim Media today announced that Janice Min has been tapped to lead Billboard and The Hollywood Reporter as Co-President/Chief Creative Officer of the Entertainment Group of Guggenheim Media. In her expanded role, which is effective immediately, Min will be responsible for all editorial direction of the iconic entertainment and music brands.

Working parallel to Min, John Amato will lead business initiatives of both Billboard and The Hollywood Reporter as Co-President of the Entertainment Group, also effective immediately. Both Min and Amato will report directly to Todd Boehly, President of Guggenheim Partners and Chairman of Guggenheim Media.

Concurrently, Guggenheim Media announced that its Prometheus Global Media would be split into two operating entities: (1) the Entertainment Group, consisting of Billboard and The Hollywood Reporter; and (2) Adweek, CLIO Awards and the Film Expo Group.

Jeff Wilbur will, as President, head up the group consisting of Adweek, CLIO Awards and the Film Expo Group. In that role, Wilbur will partner with the existing leadership to further strategic business initiatives that are currently underway. Wilbur, who most recently was the Chief Financial Officer of Prometheus Global Media, has held financial roles at Kayne Anderson and Guggenheim Partners, where he managed investments in the Guggenheim portfolio.

“We believe that this new structure will not only foster growth, but allow enhanced opportunities for advertisers, readers, viewers and/or audiences and, of course, our employees,” Boehly said.  “We see significant growth potential beyond our current platforms. The new structure will also allow synergies within each of these two new organizations which will foster growth and enhanced opportunities for each of our constituencies.”

“Janice has proven to be a visionary editor and leader, not only at THR, but throughout her career. In just three years, she has built one of the most powerful brands in entertainment media,” Boehly continued. “She has innovated, both in print and digitally, consistently leading the way in not only driving new initiatives, but in breaking some of entertainment’s biggest stories. As Co-President/Chief Creative Officer of Billboard and The Hollywood Reporter, we are confident she will continue to bring consumers straight into the heart of the entertainment and music industries.”

“The combination of Billboard and The Hollywood Reporter under one editorial voice creates a true entertainment super-brand,” said Min. “I’m excited to be at the center of two organizations so influential in driving the conversation in popular culture. The breaking news, personalities and glamour -- all wrapped in a sophisticated media environment -- that the two brands deliver make for a thrilling combination.”

Amato, who as Co-President will head the business side of both Billboard and The Hollywood Reporter, is a media entrepreneur and executive who led Backstage, LLC, as chairman and CEO, including the successful acquisition of Sonicbids, until overseeing the sale of the company to RZ Capital in December. Prior to Backstage, Amato led Show Media, the country’s leading transit-based, out-of-home-advertising company.

Joining Min’s editorial team as she oversees both outlets will be current Hollywood Reporter creative director Shanti Marlar, photo and video director Jennifer Laski, and executive editor, overseeing news, Matthew Belloni. All three were instrumental in the revamping of The Hollywood Reporter.

Since assuming leadership of The Hollywood Reporter in 2010, Min has overseen a transformation of the daily trade publication into the leading global entertainment media outlet. The New York Times has called the cover of The Hollywood Reporter’s weekly glossy print edition “prized real estate” and under the business direction of publisher Lynne Segall the publication has seen explosive growth. From 2012 to 2103, revenue grew 75% in the consumer/luxury space, and 35% in digital revenue, with new advertisers including Delta, Mercedes-Benz, Ralph Lauren and Sony Electronics.

The Hollywood Reporter also has won 20 National Entertainment Journalism Awards from the LA Press Club, including Best Website, Best Entertainment Publication and Best Entertainment Journalist, since Min became editorial director. Min was also awarded the NEJ’s Luminary Award for Career Achievement in 2012.

The Hollywood Reporter’s website, thr.com, now draws more than 12 million monthly unique visitors (ComScore) -- a 38% year-over-year increase -- who have access to breaking news, features, profiles, top-tier photography and video, industry stats and figures and a range of high-powered blogs, including awards season-focused The Race; and the entertainment industry’s premier legal blog, Hollywood Esq. The brand reported a 33% rise in mobile visitors in November 2013 over the previous year.

In addition to introducing fashion, beauty, luxury, automotive and lifestyle into The Hollywood Reporter, Min also widely expanded The Hollywood Reporter’s Awards Season Roundtables, bringing together A-list talent including Oprah Winfrey, George Clooney, Julia Roberts, Matthew McConaughey, Quentin Tarantino, Brad Pitt, Matt Damon, Naomi Watts, Ben Affleck, Nicole Kidman, Denzel Washington, Jamie Foxx, Judd Apatow, Richard Gere, Alan Arkin, and Charlize Theron for intimate discussions both in print and video. In 2013, the Roundtables became a television series, The Hollywood Reporter Roundtables, that aired on PBS SoCal stations.

Min has also launched a number of high-profile THR events and partnerships, including its Oscar Nominees Night party which the New York Times, in a piece on the event, reported has been partly responsible for the magazine’s growing reputation as the “‘new’ Vanity Fair.”

The Hollywood Reporter’s Emmy Nominees Night party, Next Gen event, Power of Style luncheon, Power Lawyers breakfast and Women In Entertainment breakfast have also emerged over the course of Min’s tenure as definitive entertainment industry events, attracting Hollywood’s biggest stars and insiders.

Recently, Min launched a branded Hollywood Reporter store in partnership with Hudson News at LAX airport; and in November, she oversaw the launch of The Hollywood Reporter’s standalone fashion, beauty and luxury site, Pret-a-Reporter. With Winfrey as the recipient of the Sherry Lansing Leadership Award in December, the magazine saw its highest-profile Women In Entertainment breakfast in the history of the event. In 2012, Min led the creation of a partnership with Google to host an exclusive party for the White House Correspondents Dinner.

Overseeing editorial for Billboard, Min will be taking the helm of music’s most influential media outlet, which is read by talent, the industry’s top decision makers and 10 million monthly unique visitors online (ComScore), representing a 37% year-over-year increase in web traffic. Billboard reported a 30% year-over-year rise in ad revenue in December (making that month the highest-grossing in the magazine’s history) and 16% rise in media revenue year-over-year 2013 over 2012.

Billboard hosts some of the music industry’s most important events, including ABC’s Billboard Music Awards which in 2013 featured performers including Taylor Swift, Bruno Mars, Justin Bieber, Prince, will.i.am, David Guetta and Lil Wayne and, with an audience of 12 million people -- a rise of 30 percent over the previous year. The Billboard Power 100, Latin Music Conference and Awards, broadcast on Telemundo, and Women In Music Luncheon are also landmark events in the industry calendar.

As the world’s top chart franchise, Billboard publishes 285 charts per week, and has an archive of granular weekly charted data across multiple music genres going back over 50 years to the magazine’s founding.