• by Erik Sass  @eriksass1, March 2, 2009

Hachette Filipacchi is introducing a "brand-centric" structure for its top women's titles, including Elle, Elle Décor, Metropolitan Home and Woman's Day, which includes awarding a new title, "vice president of brand content," to the editor in chiefs.

Roberta Myers is getting the title at the Elle Group, Margaret Russell will be heading up Elle Décor, Donna Warner will lead Metropolitan Home and Jane Chesnutt will become senior vice president of brand content at Woman's Day. Also, publishers are becoming "chief brand officers." Thus, Carol Smith is now senior vice president and chief brand officer for the Elle Group, Deborah Burns gets the same title at the Luxury Design Group and Carlos Lamadrid gets the title for the Woman's Day Group.

The reorganization comes at the behest of Alain Lemarchand, the president and CEO of Hachette Filipacchi, who replaced Jack Kliger last September. Lemarchand was dispatched from French parent company Lagardere SCA to revive the fortunes of the beleaguered magazine publisher, which has suffered from Internet competition and the economic slowdown. The poor performance of Hachette made it a chronic subject of complaint among shareholders of Lagardere SCA, a corporate giant with interests from aerospace to sports marketing.

In his first six months, Lemarchand has overseen a quiet but aggressive cost-cutting campaign including layoffs and reorganizations. Meanwhile, it became apparent that headquarters in Paris felt many of Hachette's most important magazine brands could be better managed; the current reorganization seems to be designed to address these issues.

Under the new organization, the chief brand officers (CBOs) will be responsible for developing new revenue streams, setting strategic directions for their magazine brands and integrating print and digital sales. Lemarchand explained: "HFM U.S. has evolved from a print magazine publisher into a diverse media company with an updated structure to match... The key to... success is the brand quality and continuity across platforms that the new structure facilitates."

Lemarchand placed particular emphasis on the growing importance of integrated multi-platform ad sales: "We want to stay ahead of the marketplace and give our business partners what they are looking for--strong brands that reach magazine readers, Web and mobile users, radio listeners, television viewers and shoppers."