Former Meredith Exec Heads Time Inc.'s Digital Video

In what represents a minor coup for Time Inc., the publisher has poached J.R. McCabe from Meredith Corp. to run a new digital video unit. As vice president and Chief Video Officer at Meredith, McCabe helped the company build and launch Meredith Video Studios, where he oversaw all branded entertainment development, broadband video sales, syndication and ad sales for MVS.
 
In his new role, McCabe will report to Todd Larsen, EVP and group president of News and Sports at Time Inc.
 
According to Larsen, investing in video is a no-brainer. “Digital video is one of the fastest-growing categories for advertisers,” Larsen said Thursday. “There is a lot of exciting thinking in our brands about digital video.”
 
For Meredith, McCabe is the second key digital executive to exit, this fall. Late last month, the publisher lost Lauren Wiener, SVP of Meredith Digital, to Tremor Video. Wiener, currently president of global sales and marketing at Tremor Video, is confident that Time Inc. lucked out with McCabe.
 
Wiener remarked: “Time is clearly making this move toward video because marketers love it and consumers love it, and because digital video represents the future of storytelling."
 
At Time Inc., McCabe will be responsible for boosting the volume and quality of digital video products across the company’s digital properties, including People.com, InStyle.com, SportsIllustrated.cnn.com and RealSimple.com, as well as identifying new channels of distribution.  
 
The existing video teams will be consolidated under McCabe; he is expected to work closely with the publisher’s editorial and sales teams.
 
Prior to Meredith, McCabe led the Eastern regional syndication sales team for CBS Paramount Television in New York.

Next story loading loading..