Industry Moves: TMZ's GM Alan Citron Leaves, Joins Buzznet; Supervising Producer Also Leaves

(PaidContent.org)  This story was written by Rafat Ali.

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One of the founding senior executives is leaving TMZ, the celebrity site owned by Time Warner: Alan Citron, the longtime GM of TMZ, is leaving to join pop-culture focused social media firm Buzznet as the head of what it calls "Special Projects". In this newly created position, Citron will advise on business and editorial strategies to "drive greater usage and revenue from the company's offerings," the company said. The Los Angeles based startup, which is heavily backed by Universal Music Group and others (it has raised close to $30 million to date), has recently launched Celebuzz, its celebrity news and info site, and very likely that Citron will be involved in developing the site further. The site, which launched in June, has hired editorial talent, and then trying to differentiate itself by adding leading indie celeb bloggers, paparazzi sites, fans, and celebrities themselves.

On the music side, which was Buzznet's main focus since its launch, it now has Buzznet.com and its string of acquisitions including Stereogum, Absolute Punk, Idolator, Vampire Freaks, Friends or Enemies and The Gauntlet.

Citron joined TMZ.com right when it started in late 2005, after leaving online movie site Movielink. Prior to Movielink, Citron was the founding president of the doomed online music JV MusicNet. Before that, he was the founding president of Ticketmaster Online and chairman of Ticketmaster Multimedia.

Meanwhile, another fixture at TMZ, the supervising producer Gillian Sheldon, is also leaving, though she is not going far. She is joining TMZ part-owner Telepictures, to work on their online brands. Sheldon was the main publicist for the high profile site and then the TV show.

Earlier in April, I did a short interview with the soft-spoken Citron, about TMZ's rise and the growth in celebrity culture...5-minute video embedded below:




By Rafat Ali