Ken Kurson

Kenneth Kurson (born 1968) is an American political consultant, writer, journalist, and former musician, who was editor-in-chief of The New York Observer between 2013 and 2017.

In the late 1980s and early 1990s, Kurson played bass for the Chicago punk rock band Green.

He graduated from Glenbrook North High School in Northbrook, Illinois, in 1986, and is the younger brother of bestselling author Robert Kurson.

While he began studies at the University of Chicago, he left college, finding the experience to be "soul-deadening."

After leaving Green in 1990, Kurson founded The Lilacs with David Levinsky.

A debut EP, The Lilacs Love You, was produced by Material Issue frontman Jim Ellison, who is also credited with naming the band The Lilacs.

A follow-up EP, The Lilacs Hate You, was the band's next release.

A full-length CD, The Lilacs Rise Above the Filth, was produced by Brad Wood and released in 1992.

In 1993, he headed to New York to break into journalism, and landed internships and jobs at Rolling Stone, Harper's and Worth. In 1995, he began an irreverent eight-page publication on financial topics, The Kenny Quarterly, while working as an editor at United Media.

It was to friends desiring financial advice.

Later that year, he and a friend, John Packel, turned The Kenny Quarterly into Green.

Kurson was a contributing editor at Esquire from 1997 to 2001, covering investing.

Kurson first became interested in finance when he played bass for Green.

He took charge of the band's books and contracts.

Doubleday published Kurson's first book, The Green Magazine Guide to Personal Finance in April 1998.

It was acquired by Bankrate in 1999.

A New York Times profile in 2000 said that Kurson "has made personal finance palatable for people who might otherwise believe that it belongs on the shelf with Geritol and Dentu-Creme."

He was co-author of a book with journalist David Faber published by Little, Brown in 2002.

From 2002 through the end of 2006, Kurson was Deputy Director of Communications for Giuliani Partners, the consulting company founded by Rudy Giuliani, with whom he had co-authored the book, Leadership.

Kurson ran in the 2003 New Jersey General Assembly election for the 34th Legislative District as a Republican.

He received 17.6% of the vote and ran a distant third behind Democratic incumbent Peter C. Eagler (with 33.2%) and his running mate Sheila Oliver (31.0%).

Kurson served as chief operating officer (COO) during Rudy Giuliani's unsuccessful 2008 campaign for the Republican presidential nomination.

Kurson hired by the Rudy Giuliani Presidential Committee and put in charge of the Mid-Atlantic Region – New Jersey, Delaware, and Maryland.

In May 2007, he was promoted to chief operating officer, reporting to Michael DuHaime, and served in this role until Giuliani withdrew from the race on January 30, 2008.

After the campaign, Kurson worked at Jamestown Associates, a Republican political consulting firm based in New Jersey.

In 2010 he was the co-author of the personal memoir of biotechnology executive John Crowley entitled Chasing Miracles: The Crowley Family Journey of Strength, Hope and Joy.

In January 2013, Kurson was named the editor of The New York Observer by the newspaper's publisher, Jared Kushner.

His tenure as editor marked by questions about his ties to Kushner, Trump's son-in-law, and to the Trump campaign, especially after he acknowledged that he had worked on a Trump speech to the American Israel Public Affairs Committee.

After criticism, Kurson said that he would no longer advise the Trump campaign.

As editor, Kurson oversaw the publication's decision in 2016 to end its print edition and drop "New York" from its title, in a break with its past under former editor Peter W. Kaplan.

In May 2017, Kurson stepped down from the Observer to work as a senior managing director at Teneo Strategies, a firm run by allies of Hillary Clinton and Bill Clinton.

He was a board member of the payments company Ripple Labs from February 2017 until October 2020, when federal prosecutors charged him in federal court with interstate cyberstalking and related offenses.

In 2018 he founded Sea of Reeds Media, a media company based in Washington, D.C. and is the CEO.

Sea of Reeds Media publishes Modern Consensus, California Globe, New Jersey Globe, Rock and Roll Globe, Wine and Whiskey Globe, Book and Film Globe, and Fine Art Globe.

In March 2018, journalist Deborah Copaken wrote an article in The Atlantic in which she claimed that Kurson withdrew a job offer that had been made to her to write for the New York Observer after not responding favorably to sexual advances from him.

Kurson said he "categorically denied any claim of inappropriate behavior."

In May 2018, Kurson revealed he was under consideration for an unpaid position in the Trump Administration.

In 2020 he was charged by federal prosecutors with cyberstalking and harassment, for which he was pardoned by President Donald Trump in 2021.

In February 2022, Kurson pleaded guilty to state misdemeanor criminal charges of attempted eavesdropping and computer trespass related to his divorce.

Kurson was the son of a traveling salesman of motorcycle parts, and once recounted that "some years were good; others we had to sell our piano and all our furniture."