2010 Most Intriguing People in Media: Maria Rodale
Steve Cohn
Maria Rodale
Chairman/CEO, Rodale Inc.
It would be easy to conclude that primogeniture won out in September 2009 when Maria Rodale became the third member of her family to lead Rodale Inc.—which was started in 1930 by her grandfather J.I. Rodale. Not quite. First, Maria is not the oldest of her siblings. Second, she gave new life to the 1942 flagship Organic Gardening, and, in the early 2000s, was publisher of Organic Style. As CEO, Maria’s restructurings included promoting Gregg Michaelson to president/integrated sales/CMO and Prevention publisher Mary Murcko to group publisher. But she kept to her knitting with the March 2010 release of Organic Manifesto: How Organic Farming Can Heal Our Planet, Feed the World, and Keep Us Safe. Maria told min that there would be no advertiser backlash. With the company’s six major titles +3.64% in ad pages through September, she—thus far—is right. ● —SC
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