Alan Murray, who spent more than two decades at The Wall Street Journal, will be Serwer’s successor. Murray most recently served as president of the Pew Research center, and at the Journal oversaw its digital operations. He also previously worked at the Journal’s Washington, D.C., bureau. Murray left the newspaper in late 2012 to take the job at Pew.

The change at the top of Fortune comes less than two months after Time (TIME), which also owns People, Entertainment Weekly and Sports Illustrated, was spun off from former parent Time Warner (TWX). The spinoff comes at a challenging time for the publishing industry, which has struggled to adapt to the digital world as more readers look to social media, blogs and other web properties to get their news fix.

Though industrywide magazine sales have faltered, Fortune is still a well-established brand. The magazine’s Fortune 500 list of the largest U.S. corporations is widely cited, and the company has built an expanding conference business. Even in a challenging ad environment, Fortune‘s revenue has risen 6% in the first half of 2014, with ad pages up 3%, according to PIB.

Serwer, the longest serving managing editor since the 1980s, oversaw the relaunch and redesign of Fortune‘s magazine and website and led a major expansion of the company’s conference division. He also oversaw the separation of Fortune.com from CNNMoney earlier this year and launched the magazine’s iPad edition. Serwer has worked at Fortune for over 29 years.