Short-term tenure: 4th CFO in 2 years.

The tenure of many CFOs has gotten shorter as institutional investors, hedge funds and lenders have put a lot of companies on a short leash. But not many companies have installed a fourth CFO in only two years.

That's what's happened at American Media Inc., publisher of tabloids like Star and The National Enquirer. The debt-burdened enterprise hired John Craven in September to serve as its new executive vice president and finance chief. A former executive vice president and CFO at Time Inc.'s Retail Marketing and Sales division, Craven replaced Carlos Abaunza, who was to stay on as a consultant with AMI for three months.

Craven's hiring came a little less than two months before AMI's financial restatements were due to its noteholders. According to folio.com, American Media, which is almost a billion dollars in debt, twice put off the filing the restatements this summer. In August, noteholders extended the deadline for the company's restatements to October 31, in return for a 1/8-point interest-rate hike. In June, the company offered American Media noteholders $5.5 million in exchange for the initial postponement.

AMI is in dire need of help. In addition to the filing of its financial statements, AMI has been has been downgraded by Moody's Investors Service at least three times since 2004. Moody's currently gives the company a negative long-term outlook.

One problem that Craven inherits is the disappointing acquisition in 2003 of five Weider publications, including Muscle & Fitness, Muscle & Fitness Hers and Flex. The titles' cash flow proved disappointing, and AMI has been trying to sell three of them, as well as two other non-Weider magazines, according to folio.com.