• by Erik Sass  @eriksass1, May 8, 2015

Richard Beckman, who once served as the powerful head of the Conde Nast Media Group, is returning to the publishing world with a high-ranking job at a different kind of media company: millennial news juggernaut Vice Media. Beckman has been tapped as its first Chief Revenue Officer.

Beckman joins Vice as the millennial news media company, which began as a news and lifestyle magazine for hipsters, expanding rapidly into video through new deals with HBO. In March, the partners announced the premium cable channel will begin carrying a daily, half-hour newscast produced by Vice Media, which will appear five days a week, 48 weeks a year. The daily newscast extends HBO’s previous partnership with Vice, which has been producing a newsmagazine for HBO since 2013. HBO is also committing to more episodes of the newsmagazine, raising the total from 14 to 35 episodes per year.

Beckman served as executive vice president and CMO and later president of the Conde Nast Media Group from 2002-2009, when he moved to the position of president of the Fairchild trade group owned by Conde Nast, which includes B2B fashion publications like Women's Wear Daily.

In 2010, he left the company to become the CEO of e5 Global Media, which acquired a number of trade publications serving the media industry, including Adweek, Mediaweek, Brandweek, The Hollywood Reporter and Billboard. E5 was formed by Pluribus Capital Management and Guggenheim Partners, and later renamed Prometheus Global Media.

Beckman left Prometheus in 2012 and in March 2013 founded Three Lions Entertainment, a company specializing in branded content, with support from Ron Burkle, the billionaire boss of Yucaipa Companies and a frequent figure in media investment news.

However, in November 2014 it emerged that Three Lions was facing liquidation, following a rupture with CBS over the "Fashion Rocks" show aired on Sept. 9. (The show's memorable moments included Justin Bieber getting booed when he stripped down to his underwear.) CBS sued Three Lions for $2.45 million, alleging breach of contract for failure to pay TV fees.

Last September, Vice received a new $500 million round of investment from Technology Crossover Ventures and A&E Networks. The investments valued Vice Media at $2.5 billion. Vice expects to collect revenues of almost $1 billion this year, according to a New York Times report.

The news of Beckman’s appointment first appeared in The Hollywood Reporter.