People News Roundup for Wild Week of Top Exec Moves

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BREAKING NEWS & VIEWS

People News Roundup for Wild Week of Top Exec Moves
Thursday, November 1, 2007
Evan Cook

Rick Smith; Photo Credit to Patrick McMullen

Rick Smith Steps Down from CEO Post at Newsweek
After 24 years as editor-in-chief, 16 as CEO, and 37 in all spent with Newsweek, Rick Smith has announced that he will relinquish all titles but that of chairman. The 61-year-old Smith first joined Newsweek in 1970 and began rapidly moving up the ranks, adding the title of chairman in 1998. While clearly cutting down on his responsibilities somewhat in the move, Smith indicated that he plans to stay involved in the magazine, offering counsel to editor Fareed Zakaria and managing editor Jon Meacham, as well as become increasingly involved with corporate and non-profit board work.

Smith’s move of course means a chain reaction of promotions and rearrangements at Newsweek. First, Thomas Ascheim, most recently general manager of Nickelodeon Television, will take Smith’s place as CEO. Ascheim has also served as gm of Nickelodeon’s Digital Television, and Smith stressed his experience and expertise in leveraging traditional media properties online as an important asset to Newsweek. In addition, former Newsweek president Harold Shain has been moved to BudgetTravel, also published by Newsweek parent The Washington Post Company, where he will serve as president and CEO. Newsweek executive vice president Gregory Osberg replaces Shain as president, and Washington Post Company VP Ann McDaniel will add the responsibility of managing director of Newsweek.

In his memo, Smith references the challenging ad market that Newsweek and other general interest magazines face, and hints at some of the strategy Newsweek may be turning to in order to overcome these challenges. Citing now-president Osberg’s experience with Newsweek.com and MSNBC.com, Smith identified him as Ascheim’s new “point man” in driving the title’s ad revenues in the future. Ascheim himself, a magazine industry outsider, clearly brings more interactive media and online media experience than traditional publishing know-how to the table. Bottom line, it’s a fairly safe bet that Newsweek will be expanding new media efforts and relying more heavily on web ad revenue in the very near future.

Dennis Publishing’s Stephen Colvin Joins CNET Networks as EVP
Stephen Colvin, former president and CEO of Dennis Publishing, which produced Maxim and Blender, which are now under the Alpha Media Banner, has been hired on as executive vice president of CNET Networks. Colvin was displaced from his post at Dennis when the company was sold to Quadrangle Capital Partners in June of this year, and Kent Brownridge was installed as CEO. At CNET, Colvin will be charged with overseeing the company’s entertainment and lifestyle brands, including GameSpot, TV.com, MP3.com, FilmSpot, CHOW, and UrbanBaby.

Three New Top Execs in Sales and Marketing at Martha Stewart Living Omnimedia
Martha Stewart’s media brand has hired on Jacki Kelley, previously VP of worldwide sales strategies and solutions at Yahoo!, as executive vice president of media sales. Before joining Yahoo!, Kelley was SVP of advertising at USA Today. In addition, Lee Heffernan, until now a consultant for MSLO, has been named senior vice president of integrated marketing, and Tom Barreca, formerly EVP of WWE Enterprises, is now SVP of digital and emerging media. Heffernan, who founded Heffernan Marketing in 2003 and has worked with Turner Broadcasting, iVillage, Oxygen and Lime Media, is reportedly known for her expertise in marketing to women. Barreca, who worked with AMC Digital Ventures before joining World Wrestling Entertainment, is charged with building multi-platform, marketer-friendly brands for MSLO.

Kyrillos Fills McGowan’s Shoes as Travel + Leisure Publisher
Following former T+L publisher Julie McGowan’s departure from the magazine and American Express Publishing Corp. on October 19, J.P. Kyrillos has left his post as publisher of Food & Wine to fill McGowan’s spot at T+L. Christina Grdovic Baltz, formerly VP and associate publisher at F&W, steps up to replace Kyrillos. Check out minonline’s full coverage of the events here.

Sucov Named Editorial Director of Prevention’s Special Interest Titles
Editor-in-chief Liz Vaccariello announced Jenny Sucov’s appointment October 30. Next year, Sucov will oversee 16 special interest publications, as well as 12 bookazines for Prevention and fellow Rodale titles Women's Health and Men's Health. Most recently executive editor of Real Simple, Sucov has also filled that same role at All You, which she helped launch, and previously served as an assistant managing editor at Time Inc. Custom Publishing.

CNNMoney.com Names Jonathan Shar General Manager
Shar was most recently vice president of consumer marketing at Sport Illustrated Group. minonline has a deeper scoop here.

Michael Rogers Joins AllBusiness.com as VP of Sales
AllBusiness.com, which provides information like how-to articles, business forms, contracts and agreements, advice, blogs, business news, and directory listings to business professionals, has hired on Michael Rogers, previously national accounts director at SourceForge Inc., as vice president of sales. Reporting to ceo Kathy Yates, he will be responsible for all ad sales functions. Previously, Rogers has managed sales for Reed Business Information and Knight Ridder, and had a stint serving as president and ceo of Computerworld for IDG.

National Geographic Names Tim Kelly President of New Global Media Group
In a latest reorganization, The National Geographic Society has created a Global Media group, which is to consist of its magazine, book publishing, television, film, music, radio, digital media and maps units. Tim Kelly, president and CEO of National Geographic Ventures, is will lead the group as president. His leadership team will expands to include John Q. Griffin, executive vice president of the National Geographic Society and president of the Magazine Group, and Nina Hoffman, executive vice president of the Society and president of Book Publishing. National Geographic Magazine Group includes National Geographic magazine, National Geographic Traveler, National Geographic Adventure, NG Kids and the min mag 2007 Hot Launch, NG Little Kids.

If you have breaking news to share please contact Steve Smith at ssmith@accessintel.com

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