PUBLISHER OF CELEB MAGAZINE NAMED PUBLISHER OF “HOLLYWOOD REPORTER”

Lori Burgess, who has been the publisher of the celebrity weekly OK! since October 2008, has been named the new publisher of The Hollywood Reporter. Although she previously has served as publisher of the defunct House & Garden, as well as Mademoiselle, Elle and Seventeen, her background does not include trade or business-oriented publications. MediaWeek reported today (Monday) that Burgess is planning to “expand THR to new platforms” but declined to specify what they might be. “There’s a lot in the works that we’ll be able to talk about very soon,” she told the trade magazine, a sister publication of THR. Burgess replaces Eric Mika, who was fired last month by THR‘s new owner, E5 Global Media. At the time Deadline Hollywood blogger Nikki Finke reported that the company plans to abandon THR‘s trade format and formula and become an online showbiz news aggregator and a glossy magazine.