It will come as no surprise to those who follow the Manhattan media scene that The New York Observer has picked a new editor. After all, the newspaper has already had five editors in the seven years since Jared Kushner, a New York real estate developer, acquired the newspaper at the age of 25 in 2006.
Now it has a sixth. Ken Kurson, an author and editor who once worked with Rudolph W. Giuliani, the former mayor of New York, was named editor in chief of The Observer and editorial director of the Observer Media Group on Friday.
Mr. Kurson, 44, a longtime friend of Mr. Kushner’s, takes over from Aaron Gell, who has served as interim editor since Elizabeth Spiers resigned last August.
In a letter to The Observer staff, Mr. Kushner said: “Ken knows the ideas, stories and voices that make up New York better than anyone. He is a journalist and an author and through his years as a consultant observed the figures who create the framework of business, politics, media, tech, culture and real estate in our city.”
As Mr. Kushner has churned through editors and financial losses, he has struggled to find a landing place for The Observer, which faces increased competition from a revitalized New York Magazine and any number of Web sites staffed by young writers cracking wise and sometimes wisely about current events in New York.
“I took a company that was losing a lot of money and run as a hobby and turned it into a business,” Mr. Kushner said in a telephone interview Friday. “If you take a conventional approach in the media business, you are going to get slaughtered. It’s true that I’ve broken some eggs along the way, but in the process I’ve preserved an important editorial voice, not just in New York but in the rest of the country.”
Mr. Gell was surprised by the move, but was aware that editorial changes have become common at the weekly.
“I have loved every minute of editing the Observer, and I’m really proud of what we’ve done here, especially in terms of boosting readership to our web properties and our coverage of Hurricane Sandy,” Mr. Gell said. “I know Ken. He’ll do a great job, and I look forward to helping him out however I can.”
Mr. Kurson has been a contributing editor at Esquire magazine since 1997 and has written a column there. He was an intern at Harper’s Magazine, started and sold a personal finance magazine, and has written four books.
Still, one of those books was “Leadership,” which he co-wrote with Mr. Giuliani. Mr. Kurson worked at Giuliani Partners in 2002 after completing the book and then joined Mr. Giuliani’s failed campaign for president in 2008. Since then Mr. Kurson has worked at Jamestown Associates, a New Jersey political and communications firm, where he ran media operations for a number of Republican House and Senate candidates.
Given his close ties to Mr. Giuliani and the former mayor’s keen interest in advancing the candidacy of Joseph J. Lhota, the former head of the Metropolitan Transportation Authority, Mr. Kurson says he knows he will be closely watched.
“People will think what they want,” he said in an interview. “I will have to earn their trust. I have had a long and honorable journalistic career, calling it like I see it and being a straight shooter.”
A version of this article appeared in print on 01/05/2013, on page B3 of the NewYork edition with the headline: The New York Observer Names Author as Editor.
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