????資深媒體高管諾姆?珀爾斯汀重返時代公司(Time Inc.)——8年前，他辭去了時代公司總編輯(editor-in-chief)一職。然而，與他當年離開時的情形相比，他重新加入的這家公司如今看起來已經大不相同。

????明年初，時代公司將從時代華納公司(Time Warner)分拆出來，珀爾斯汀的到來標志著“總編輯”這項他曾經擔任的職位將不復存在。相反，珀爾斯汀將出任他此前在彭博社(Bloomberg LP)的職銜——首席內容官(chief content officer)，而目前的總編輯瑪莎?尼爾森預計將離開公司。他的老板將是時代公司新晉CEO喬?瑞普。上世紀90年代，瑞普曾擔任時代公司首席財務官，兩人的辦公室非常接近。這些年來，珀爾斯汀和瑞普一直保持著聯系。2009年，彭博社從麥格勞希爾集團(McGraw-Hill)收購《商業周刊》( Businessweek)的時候，珀爾斯汀還曾聘請瑞普擔任這筆交易的顧問。

????近日接受《財富》雜志專訪時，珀爾斯汀解釋了他重返時代公司的原因，并對這項新職位和公司的未來發表了他的見解。以下是這次專訪的內容摘要。

????《財富》：你為什么離開彭博社，重返時代公司？

????珀爾斯汀：首先需要指出的是，我在彭博社度過了一段非常難忘的時光，我非常喜歡為丹?多克托洛夫工作，所以我過去并沒有離職的打算。但今年夏天，喬?瑞普被任命為時代公司CEO，我們隨后開始聊（主要是以老朋友的身份）時代公司，以及這家公司從時代華納剝離究竟意味著什么。瑞普和瑪莎決定分道揚鑣之后，他問我有沒有興趣出擔當這個新角色。所以說，我的決定是多重考慮的結果：我確實萌生了與多年的好朋友、好同事一起工作的念頭，但我也認為，在時代公司工作是一件非常激動人心的事情。不僅僅是因為它即將被時代華納分拆出來，另一個重要原因是，這家企業正在迅速演變，令人目不暇接。

????你如何定義首席內容官這一角色，它跟你過去擔任的總編輯職位有何不同？

????就某些方面而言，總編輯的職責是相當明確的。我是時代公司第五位總編輯，也是首位來自公司外部的總編輯——在這里的每一周，我都提醒自己這一點。總編輯的傳統工作是跟紐約多家期刊的編輯交流互動，我們主要商討雜志的措辭和圖片。

????對編輯獨立性、內容質量和標準負責將依然是首席內容官的重要工作之一。我不能采取理所當然的態度，因為你每天都面臨與這份職責相關的質疑。比如，第一天來這里上班，我就花了很長時間閱讀《體育畫報》(Sports Illustrated )的一篇文章，在保護消息來源等方面，這篇文章的確存在一些問題。

????但這份工作還給我提供了一個成為CEO合作伙伴的機會。從公司戰略，到新產品開發，再到現有品牌的延伸，我們可以一起思考所有重大事務。一家即將在傳媒業的多事之秋上市的公司尤其需要這樣一種不同的關系。它的象征之一是，我沒有搬回我過去使用的那間辦公室，而是在瑞普的套間找了一個辦公場所。這件事聽起來似乎沒有什么特別重要的意義，但根據我11年前在這里工作的經驗，如果你和CEO相隔遙遠，以至于你需要打電話預約，你就不可能成為他的親密同事。

????Veteran media executive Norm Pearlstine is back at Time Inc., eight years after stepping down as editor-in-chief. But the company he rejoins looks very different than the one he left.

????Time Inc. is being spun out of Time Warner (TWX) early next year, and Pearlstine's arrival signals the demise of the editor-in-chief role he once held. Instead, he will be "chief content officer" -- a title he most recently held at Bloomberg LP -- while current EIC Martha Nelson is expected to leave the company. His boss will be recently-installed CEO Joe Ripp, a former Time Inc. chief financial officer whose office was adjacent to Pearlstine's back in the 1990s. The pair had stayed in touch over the years, with Pearlstine even recruiting Ripp to advise on Bloomberg's 2009 acquisition of Businessweek from McGraw-Hill.

????We wanted to speak to Pearlstine about why he came back to Time Inc., about his new role and the company's future. What follows is an edited transcript of our conversation:

????FORTUNE: Why did you leave Bloomberg and return to Time?

????PEARLSTINE: First of all, I had a great run at Bloomberg and loved working for Dan Doctoroff, so I had no plans to leave. But when Joe Ripp was named CEO of Time Inc. over the summer, we started talking -- really more as old friends, about Time Inc. and the implications of a spinoff from Time Warner. When he and Martha decided they were going to go their separate ways he contacted me and asked if I'd have any interest in coming in as this new role. So my decision was really the combination of working with a very old friend and colleague, coupled with what I think is a very exciting time at Time Inc. Not only because it's being spun off, but because of how quick the business is moving and changing.

????How do you define this chief content officer role, as opposed to the editor-in-chief position you once held?

????The editor-in-chief role was fairly well-defined in some respects. I was the fifth -- and the first to come from outside the company, as I was reminded every week I was here, and traditionally the editor-in-chief primarily interacted with the editors of the main New York titles. It was very much about the words and pictures in the magazines...

????Being responsible for editorial independence and quality and standards will remain an important part of what I do as chief content officer. And I don't take it for granted, because you are questioned about it every day. For example, I spent my first day here reading a Sports Illustrated piece where there were some questions about confidentiality of sources and so forth.

????But the other part of this job is the opportunity to be a partner to the CEO and together think about everything from strategy to new products to extensions of existing brands. Particularly for a company that is about to go public in a time of extraordinary turbulence in our industry, it really called for a different kind of relationship. One symbol of that is that I'm not moving back to my old office, but have taken one in Joe's suite. What that may not sound particularly significant, I knew from my prior 11 years up here that you can't be a very close colleague to the CEO when you have so much physical space between you and him that you need to call to make appointments.