Norman Pearlstine (born October 4, 1942, in Philadelphia) is an American editor, now serving as Chief Content Officer of Time Inc.
Pearlstine worked for the Wall Street Journal from 1968 to 1992, except for a two-year period, 1978–1980, when he was an executive editor for Forbes magazine. At the Journal, he served as a staff reporter in Dallas, Detroit, and Los Angeles (1968–73); Tokyo bureau chief (1973–76); managing editor of The Asian Wall Street Journal (1976–78); national editor (1980–81); editor and publisher of The Wall Street Journal/Europe (1982–83); managing editor (1983–91); and executive editor (1991–92).
He was named as the interim president of the New-York Historical Society in 1992.
After leaving the Wall Street Journal he launched SmartMoney and was later the general partner of Friday Holdings, a multimedia investment company, prior to succeeding Jason McManus as editor in chief at Time Inc. in 1995. He was editor in chief of Time Inc., where he served between January 1, 1995, and December 31, 2005. At the end of his tenure, he was responsible for the content of Time Inc.'s 154 publications, including Entertainment Weekly, Fortune, In Style, Money, People, Real Simple, Sports Illustrated, and Time. Through 2006, he served as a senior adviser to Time Warner.
Pearlstine was a senior adviser to the Carlyle Group's telecommunications and media group in New York. Pearlstine then joined Bloomberg L.P. in June 2008 as Chief Content Officer, a newly created position. In that role Pearlstine was charged with seeking growth opportunities for Bloomberg’s television, radio, magazine, and online products and to make the most of the company’s news operations. Pearlstine also served as Chairman of Bloomberg Businessweek, the magazine Bloomberg L.P. acquired fromMcGraw-Hill in 2009, and as Co-Chairman of Bloomberg Government, a web-based subscription service devoted tocoverage of the impact of government actions on business, including legislation, regulation, and contracts.