• by Wayne Friedman , February 28, 2008

Nielsen Business Media has revamped its entertainment publishing businesses under a new group and appointed veteran entertainment publishing executive Gerry Byrne to lead the new unit.

Byrne will be senior vice president of the Entertainment Group for Nielsen Business Media, reporting to Greg Farrar, president of Nielsen Business Media.

In this role, Byrne has responsibility for the global entertainment, music and literary publishing business, including Billboard, The Hollywood Reporter, Back Stage, Kirkus Reviews, The Bookseller and Film Journal International. He will also oversee major film industry meetings: ShoWest, ShowEast, Cinema Expo International and CineAsia Exposition.

Until now, Nielsen had slotted a number of its entertainment trade and business properties into two groups: Film & Performing Arts and Music & Literary. In the wake of the reshuffling, John Kilcullen--who had been senior vice president of Film & Performing Arts and Music & Literary groups since October 2006--will leave the company at the beginning of March to pursue entrepreneurial efforts.

Byrne is a veteran entertainment publishing executive, most notably as group vice president and publisher of Variety and Daily Variety. He then moved to president, CEO and partner of Stagebill Media. Byrne also had executive positions at Act III Publishing and Crain Communications' Advertising Age, Electronic Media (now TV Week), and Crain's New York Business.

Since 2003, he has run his own entertainment marketing consultancy, Gerry Byrne Media Partners, with clients including Tribeca Enterprises, Parade magazine, and Reed Business Information. Reed, the parent of Daily Variety and Variety, is now looking to sell its business publications.

Byrne has been an adviser to Nielsen Business Media since January 2007.