Ex-Walmart Exec Tops Prometheus

Prometheus Global Media, the company that owns trade titles including Billboard and The Hollywood Reporter, appointed ex-Walmart exec Dottie Mattison CEO July 2 to replace Richard Beckman, who left the company June 29.

Mattison, who was senior VP and GM of the Apparel Global Merchandising Center of Walmart Stores Inc., prior to becoming a senior managing director of Guggenheim Partners, has already been working out of the Prometheus offices for a year, according to the Wall Street Journal. Guggenheim Partners is a part-owner of Prometheus.

“Dottie’s brand management and executive leadership experience are the perfect combination to lead Prometheus and its rich portfolio of music, media and entertainment businesses,” Guggenheim Partners President Todd Boehly told the Journal.

No mention was made of Mattison’s expertise in music, media or entertainment.

Mattison takes the reins of a media company reportedly deep in the red, losing $6 million last year, according to Sharon Waxman in The Wrap, which reports THR is down to 12,000 paying subscribers despite its claim of 70,000 circulation.

A Prometheus representative denied The Wrap’s claim in response. “The Hollywood Reporter is profitable … as usual u are incorrect in reporting on this company,” the publicist reportedly replied via email.

The Wrap reported that since coming into the Prometheus domain last year, Mattison has stepped on toes at Billboard, by making Lionel Richie the magazine’s SXSW guest in March and by installing ‘80s MTV veejay Julie Brown as host of its online video division.

Billboard has been hemorrhaging key staff in 2012 including its publisher, editor and “a number of other editors and staffers,” according to The Wrap. And despite being profitable when Prometheus took over, the music trade is “on the decline, with only the ‘Billboard Music Awards’ television license providing significant growth,” The Wrap reports.