Jay Penske

Jay Penske is an American entrepreneur, media and publishing proprietor, live events owner, philanthropist, and real estate investor. He is known for creating the media company Penske Media Corporation, which he started in 2004. He is also the CEO of Dick Clark Productions.^[1][2]

Born in New York City, New York, Penske is the youngest son of Kathy, an English school teacher and Roger Penske, the founder and chairman of the Penske Corporation, owner of Team Penske, and former race car driver. Penske is an alumnus of St. Mary's Preparatory, in Detroit Michigan, after having attended Cranbrook, Tabor Academy, and Lawrenceville.^[3]

Penske graduated from the University of Pennsylvania's Wharton School,^[4] with a Bachelor of Science in Management of Information Systems and Finance.^[5] He is on the board of the Entrepreneurial School at the Wharton School as of 2007,^[5] and is also a member of the University of Pennsylvania Library's board of directors.^[6]

Penske co-founded Firefly Mobile, Inc., a wireless company that developed the Firefly mobile phone for children, and other youth targeted mobile devices and products.^[7]

Penske founded and owned Dragon Books, Ltd., a Los Angeles-based antiquarian, and used bookstore which sold rare and collectible books which opened for business in 1999, and closed fifteen years later in 2014. It was named after Penske's favorite childhood book, "Dragon, Dragon", written by John Gardner.^[8]

In 2004, Penske established the media and publishing company PMC, Penske Media Corporation. Its initial focus was leveraging digital technology to help evolve and transform offline and traditional media brands to the web. In 2005, Penske acquired the URL Mail.com and began building what became one of the largest email businesses in the world. When asked his rationale for building an email business, Penske's shared that his goal was to drive more traffic into the growing portfolio of media brands he was creating and acquiring. By the mid-2000s, PMC was the operator and owner of BGR, OnCars.com, Movieline, MailTimes, in addition to the 5th largest email business in the United States: Mail.com.^[9]

By late 2007, with the launch of Gmail by Google, Penske went to find a home for the company's email business. In late 2009 he came to an agreement to sell Mail.com. The deal was finally complete as Penske sold Mail.com in 2010 at a profit to the German media company United Internet. Penske took the proceeds from the sale to invest into scaling the publishing and content business and tripling the brands from 5 to 16 by early 2015.

In 2012, Penske cemented his publishing empire in Los Angeles with the purchase of the then struggling Variety from Reed Elsevier (RELX plc). In attempting to acquire Variety, Penske called on every leading private equity fund and hedge fund in New York, San Francisco and Los Angeles to obtain backing. Penske met Dan Loeb and Third Point during this time and Third point ended up replacing Shamrock Holdings as Penske's partners as Shamrock, an LA-based Private Equity Fund pulled-out of the deal with Penske because of Variety's growing losses. Third Point funded Penske's ambition and lent him $26 million in debt and equity. Penske bought Third Point out at a massive profit in 2020, which Dan Loeb has publicly described as one of Third Point's greatest investments and returns in the fund's history.^[10]

Upon acquiring Variety in 2012, Penske appointed Claudia Eller, who he poached from the LA Times, and since PMC's acquisition of Variety, the brand doubled the total number of journalists. Additionally, Penske promoted Michelle Sobrino, the first woman in Variety's 107-year history to publisher. Penske is known for hiring more female leaders to run his businesses than male executives, which he credits for many of the brands turnaround successes.^[11][12]

In 2014, Penske pushed further into NY media and acquired Fairchild Publishing, home to WWD from Conde Nast for $100m. The previous price Conde Nast had paid years earlier for Fairchild and WWD was $700 million. This is believed to be the first major publishing asset that the Newhouse family ever sold. Penske commented that without a successful NY media presence at scale, PMC could never properly compete with its rivals at Hearst Communications, Conde Nast and Time Inc.^[13][14][15]

In early 2015, Penske also began traveling to India every 3-to-4 weeks, in pursuit of establishing an India based version of PMC. Penske found a like-minded entrepreneur in Subhash Chandra, owner and founder of India's largest media company ZEEtv. Penske and Chandra created India.com Media Corporation; a joint venture owned 50/50 by the partners. Penske and his PMC team led the operations and built IMC to be the number 2 digital media business in India before selling their stake to Zee in 2018. PMC has no current ownership interest in India.com, as it sold its interest to Zee Media, India's largest media company as well as 6 other sites in India in 2018.^[16]

In 2016, PMC acquired IndieWire, a leader in independent film/tv coverage. Also in 2016, Penske became controlling shareholder of The Robb Report in December, as it bought control from Dan Gilbert, owner of Quicken Loans, Rocket Mortgage and the Cleveland Cavaliers.^[17][18]

In 2017, Penske acquired a majority interest in Rolling Stone from the Wenner family, becoming the second owner in history of the music, politics, and culture title. Penske believed much more was possible with the brand digitally and through live events.^[19]

In June 2020, Jay Penske founded Sportico (Business of Sports) with editor Scott Soshnick. Sportico is a platform dedicated to the business of sports.^[20]

In September 2020, Penske Media Corporation acquired The Hollywood Reporter, Billboard, and Vibe for $225 million. PMC, which also owns Variety, Rolling Stone, and Music Business Worldwide, gained control of these media brands as part of the purchase. Billboard, established in 1894, experienced its most successful year in history within two years of the acquisition. After the deal was finalized, the Department of Justice's antitrust division investigated the transaction but chose not to take action, determining it did not constitute a monopoly. Each publication under PMC continues to operate independently, with separate newsrooms, financial reporting, and business staff.^[21]

PMC has a 50% stake in SXSW and is the majority shareholder (acquired in April 2021).^[22]

PMC also owns Luminate, a music data platform, and is the combination of the former SoundScan, Nielsen Music Data, MRC Data, Alpha Data and Variety's Business Intelligence operations.^[23][24]

Penske Media Corporation owns: Music brands: Billboard, Billboard Music Charts, Rolling Stone, Vibe, SXSW, and Luminate) Entertainment Brands: Hollywood/Film/TV (The Hollywood Reporter, Variety, Deadline, IndieWire, TVLine, Gold Derby) Art Brands (ARTnews, Art in America, Artforum) and Fashion Brands: (Fairchild Media - Women's Wear Daily, FN, BeautyInc, Sourcing Journal as well as SHE Media brand, StyleCaster, Rivet).^[25]

In addition to his role as Chairman, Founder and CEO of Penske Media Corporation, Jay Penske created and founded the following PMC Brands and companies during its history, Mail.com, India.com, MailTimes, TVLine, Sportico and Luminate. Jay Penske is also the CEO of Dick Clark Productions.^[1]

Penske in 2023 was described by Los Angeles Magazine as "one of the most powerful publishers in the world", and has been compared to William Randolph Hearst, S.I. Newhouse, and Rupert Murdoch for his acquisition and portfolio of media brands.^[26][27][28]

Penske founded an IndyCar Series racing team in 2007, jointly with Steve Luczo, the Chairman of Seagate Technology.^[5] In October 2013, Penske Autosport signed an agreement with Formula E Holdings to be the fourth franchise team to enter the new FIA Formula E Championship.^[29] The team was runner-up in the 2014-15 season with drivers Jérôme d'Ambrosio (who ranked fourth) and Loïc Duval. Penske Autosport has won the first ever Formula E races in the following countries: Germany, at the Berlin E-Prix (2015); Mexico, at the Mexico City E-Prix (2016); and India, at the Hyderabad E-Prix (2023), and the Jeddah ePrix in 2025^{[30][31][32][33]}

Penske Media owns and operates a portfolio of real estate assets.

In May of 2022, Penske Media became co-owners of 475 Fifth Avenue, making it the east coast headquarters of Penske Media.^[34]

Penske Media acquired and is the owner of an island in the Exumas.^[35][36]

Penske married model Elaine Irwin in 2012.^[37] They separated in 2023 and divorced in 2024.^[38]

• Jay Penske at IMDb