The Media Carousel
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The revolving door of the media industry never stops. Here, WWD rounds up some notable moves of late.
First up is Condé Nast, which rolled out a handful of leadership changes as new chief executive officer Roger Lynch starts to put his mark on the publisher and complete the task of combining U.S. and international operations. Anna Wintour, in addition to her roles as Vogue editor in chief and artistic director across Condé, is now also global content adviser. Wolfgang Blau, previously president of Condé Nast International, is now president of international and chief operating officer. Pamela Drucker Mann, previously chief revenue and marketing officer, is now global chief revenue officer and president of U.S. revenue. Jamie Jouning, previously chief revenue officer for international, is now chief client officer. In his memo on the changes, Lynch also reaffirmed David Remnick’s place as editor of The New Yorker and Oren Katzeff’s role as president of Condé Nast Entertainment. Separately, Condé revealed the hiring of Geneva Wasserman as senior vice president of motion pictures at CNE. She most recently worked as an executive producer at Project Z Entertainment, which she cofounded. Ousted in the Condé shuffle were chief financial officer David Geithner and h.r. head JoAnn Murray.
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Elsewhere, The Atlantic, about two years into its ownership by Laurene Powell Jobs, made a number of changes and additions as well. Ross Andersen has been promoted to deputy editor after four years leading its coverage of science, technology and health. Those sections will now be led by Sarah Laskow, Ellen Cushing and Paul Bisceglio, respectively. Caitlin Frazier is now senior audience editor, a new role at the publication, after four years overseeing social, partnerships and The Atlantic archives. Yoni Appelbaum, an editor mostly covering politics, will lead a “major expansion” of the new Ideas section, home to opinion pieces, which he helped launch last year. The Atlantic will hire three additional editors for the section and start publishing more pieces on a daily basis for the section. Separately, The Atlantic hired Kaitlyn Tiffany as a staff writer to cover Internet culture. She was previously a tech reporter for Vox consumer vertical The Goods, which started after Vox closed its shopping and style site Racked. The publication also hired Alisa Leonard as head of global marketing, which will include work with its in-house studio Re:think.
BuzzFeed is losing its chief marketing officer, Ben Kauffman, at the end of the year. Kauffman is set to stay on as an adviser but will be giving more time to his recently founded company Camp, an experiential toy store for children, which BuzzFeed is reportedly is a minority investor in. Kauffman is the third marketing lead to exit BuzzFeed in as many years. He only took up the spot in January, a few months after the exit of Orlando Baeza and about two years after the exit of Frank Cooper, its very first chief marketing officer hired in 2015.
Hearst made a few marketing and sales focused changes, too, in the wake of Michael Clinton’s recent retirement. Jeffrey Hamill, a sales and marketing executive with Hearst Magazines since 2012, is now chief media officer, a new role, giving him oversight of ad negotiations and agency partnerships. Todd Haskell, with Hearst Magazines since 2013, is now chief marketing officer. Tom Kirwan, president of national sales since 2013, is now chief revenue officer for Hearst Media Solutions, a recently integrated part of the company offering marketing services. All three men will report to Hearst’s yet-to-be-named chief business officer.
Food quarterly Savuer named Sarah Gray Miller its new editor in chief, making her the magazine’s third editor in less than two years. She was most recently editor of niche publication Modern Farmer, which ended it’s print run last year and is now digital only.
U.S. News & World Report, which also went digital-only, save for occasional special issues, in 2010, just named Kim Castro is new editor in chief and chief content officer, making her the 71-year-old publication’s first woman editor in chief. Castro has been at the title for a decade. With her promotion, Brian Kelly, a 21-year veteran of U.S. News, is taking on the new role of editorial director and executive vice president.
The Ringer, a sports and culture web site with a large slate of podcasts founded by Bill Simmons with HBO in the wake of his acrimonious departure from ESPN and his web site Grantland, also made top editorial changes. Mallory Rubin will be The Ringer’s new editor in chief, promoted from executive editor. She is replacing Sean Fennessey, who is becoming chief content officer. Both have been with The Ringer since it started in 2016 and were part of the staff exodus at Grantland when ESPN forced out Simmons.
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