Fortune magazine's editor-at-large and CNN "American Morning" regular Andy Serwer has been named managing editor of Fortune. Serwer had been editor-at-large since 1998. He replaces Eric Pooley, who lasted less than 18 months (Pooley will now join Time Inc. editor John Huey and Time Inc. managing editor Jim Kelly on "investigative projects.")

The New Yorker described Serwer in 2000 as a "poet singer":

Achaea had Homer, the Spanish Civil War had Hemingway, California had the Beach Boys, and now our hyperactive stock market has its own poet singer — Andy Serwer.

Wall Street's "poet singer" inherits Fortune at a critical time. Through September, Fortune is down 5.6 percent in ad pages and 4.5 percent in ad revenue compared to 2005, according to the Publishers Information Bureau. (Inc., by comparison, is flat.) Fortune Small Business, though, seems to be growing.