Our People » Charles Koones
Charlie Koones is the founder and CEO if Rockmore Media, LLC, a Los Angeles based firm developing and investing in businesses in the entertainment and media industry. Prior to forming Rockmore in 2008, Mr. Koones spent eight years as the president and publisher of Variety, the worldwide leader in entertainment business information. During his tenure at Variety, Mr. Koones was responsible for the global business operations of The Variety Group, including Variety, Daily Variety, Daily Variety Gotham, Variety.com, Digital Variety and Variety Japan.
While at Variety parent company Reed Elsevier, Mr. Koones also served as president of the Entertainment Division, overseeing three operating units focused on entertainment business information. These properties, including Marketcast, Broadcasting & Cable, Multichannel News, TWICE, Video Business, 411 Publishing and Tradeshow Week focused on home entertainment, data and marketing research, and together with Variety constituted the words largest integrated entertainment business information network.
Koones spent 17 years at Variety, during which time the franchise experienced tremendous growth in print, online, special issues, research and new media developments. Under Mr. Koones’ leadership, Variety products became the market leaders in advertising pages, online page views, market share and global influence.
A primary architect of Variety’s digital growth, Koones’ Variety.com experienced significant annual gains in all key metrics, with a 70% CAGR in both advertising and page views from 2003-2007.
Mr. Koones was the acquiring executive for the marketing research firm Marketcast in 2000. Since acquisition, Marketcast has grown into the leading marketing researcher servicing the entertainment industry and is the most successful acquisition in RBI-US history.
In 2006, Mr. Koones executive produced the HBO documentary “Boffo: Tinseltown’s Bombs and Blockbusters”. The film was an official selection in the 2006 Cannes Film Festival and opened the AFI’s Silverdocs Festival.
Actively involved in a number of media industry organizations and social causes, Mr. Koones serves on the boards of the Museum of the Moving Image, the advisory board of Inner-City Arts, the Environmental Media Association and the President’s Council of the University of Richmond; in addition, he is a member of the Young Presidents Organization (YPO) and the AFI Third Decade Council. He is a past board member of Content Next media.
Mr. Koones is a graduate of the University of Richmond. He currently resides in Los Angeles with his wife, Linda and their two sons.