Richard Beckman becomes king of ‘The Hill’

Richard “Mad Dog” Beckman has been named president of The Hill, the Beltway publication that is enjoying new growth in these turbulent times.

Beckman joins as the publication’s Web traffic has surged to 30 million unique visitors a month — with plans afoot to aggressively ramp up video. For example, the company plans to open studios in Washington, New York and Los Angeles by Jan. 1.

The move represents a reunion of Beckman and Jimmy Finkelstein, the owner of The Hill. Interestingly, the two had reportedly clashed when they last worked together at Prometheus Global Media five years ago.

Finkelstein downplayed any past differences there may have been while both were running Adweek, Billboard and The Hollywood Reporter.

“We did so much so fast and at the end of the day built a great company,” said Finkelstein, who ran it after Beckman left by “mutual agreement” in 2012, after 2 ¹/₂ years.

Beckman had spent 23 years as a hard-charging and controversial executive at Condé Nast and Fairchild before joining Prometheus.

Despite mixed results, Beckman did successfully relaunch the Billboard Music Awards, which signed a deal with a major TV network during his tenure.

After leaving Prometheus, Beckman had tried to launch his own company, Three Lions Entertainment, to produce a Fashion Rocks TV spectacular. The company ended up crashing and burning — and in the ashes were scattered some legal entanglements with CBS and Barclays Center about unpaid bills.

He then joined Vice Media as chief revenue officer as it was ramping up its TV content, but he left after a year.

Since January through Thursday, possibly, Beckman was the chief revenue officer at Group Nine, parent company of Thrillist.

“Jimmy and I go back 20 years,” said Beckman. “We had our three years at Prometheus. I felt this was an exciting opportunity. Politics is fast becoming the most important passion point in American culture.”

Finkelstein said of his new plans, “We’re expanding in so many ways. By January, we will have short-form and long-form video shows that will play across many platforms and will be of cable TV quality.”