Ankler Media, the most incisive and trusted voice in coverage of the entertainment industry, has announced the appointment of David Lidsky as executive editor. He joins Ankler Media after 20 years at Fast Company, where he was most recently deputy editor. Lidsky will report to CEO and Editor-in-Chief Janice Min and will work closely with her and co-founder Richard Rushfield on the editorial vision for the brand.
During his two-decade tenure at Fast Company, Lidsky was a senior editor and an articles editor before becoming deputy editor, helping to oversee the editorial direction of the brand with a focus on narrative features. He co-ran the annual “Most Innovative Companies” franchise, growing it into a multimillion-dollar platform across print, digital and live events. Lidsky pitched and worked on prescient features about media including YouTube’s global ambitions, the rise of podcasting, X’s (formerly Twitter) evolving vision for the TV business, HBO’s effort to challenge Netflix and The Chernin Group’s model for building brands such as Barstool Sports.
“David Lidsky is a masterful editor, with decades of experience working with some of the best writers in the business. His keen eye for news and his experience with building media brands will be a key asset as we continue to grow The Ankler,” said Janice Min.
Prior to joining Fast Company, he was an editor at Fortune Small Business, where he commissioned one of the first-ever features on Netflix in 2002, and earlier in his career he worked at PC Magazine. Lidsky is also an editorial consultant for nonfiction book authors.
“I have been a fan of both Richard Rushfield and Janice Min for a long time, and I am so excited to work with them and the team they’ve assembled,” said Lidsky. “In such a short time, The Ankler has become a go-to resource for an entertainment industry experiencing profound change. We’re going to continue to build on the uncompromising reporting and thoughtful analysis that have become its hallmarks.”
Lidsky joins Ankler Media at a pivotal time of growth for the brand. The Ankler has experienced a meteoric rise, up 62 percent year-over-year in ad revenue in 2023, and up more than 490 percent in subscription revenue since launching as a Y Combinator company in January 2022. For just January 2024, The Ankler was up 79 percent year-over-year. With 67,000 subscribers across its titles and more than 1.3 million podcast downloads, The Ankler has expanded into live events and is now the third largest business publication on Substack, having both predicted and ridden the wave of change in the entertainment industry. While much of the media industry continues to contract, Ankler Media is steadily growing with its masthead now including contributing editor Claire Atkinson, Gregg Kilday, Manori Ravindran, and The Optionist’s Andy Lewis as well as staff writers Peter Kiefer and Elaine Low, and Sean McNulty of The Wakeup. Sales phenom London Sanders is now head of sales.
Stories that Lidsky has conceived and edited have received awards from SABEW, Deadline Club and the James Beard Foundation and Fast Company won an ASME for Magazine of the Year during his tenure.
He’s based in the New York City metropolitan area and starts on Feb. 20.
About Ankler Media:
The Ankler newsletter originally launched in 2017 and quickly became a trusted voice in coverage of the entertainment business, widely circulated among the most influential leaders in the industry. Called a “hit Hollywood newsletter” by the New York Times, The Ankler is an uncompromising alternative to traditional trade reporting and aims to shed light on the often underreported and untold aspects of the industry. The Ankler is the flagship brand within Ankler Media, which was formed in January 2022 and is helmed by Janice Min, CEO and editor in chief, and Richard Rushfield, editorial director and chief columnist. With numerous newsletters and podcasts, Ankler Media provides daily insights, analysis and news about the ever-evolving world of entertainment. You can read more from The Ankler here: https://theankler.com
Comments
No comments on this item Please log in to comment by clicking here