• by Wayne Friedman , December 11, 2013

Tom Ascheim, former Nickelodeon and Newsweek media executive, has been named the new president of ABC Family. He’ll report to Anne Sweeney, co-chair, Disney Media Networks and president, Disney/ABC Television Group.

Back in September, Michael Riley departed as president of ABC Family.

Ascheim began his career working for an independent film producer at Geoffrey Drummond Productions and then became a financial analyst at Silver Screen Management.

In 1990, he joined Viacom as vp of business development and media products for Nickelodeon, responsible for strategic and long-range planning, market analysis, and the annual budget. He rose to evp/gm of Nickelodeon Television, overseeing Nickelodeon, Nick at Nite, Nick Jr., and all of Nickelodeon's digital operations.

In 2007, Ascheim became chief executive officer for Newsweek overseeing all global operations, web and mobile sites, regional magazines in US, Europe, Asia and Latin  America. After four years at Newsweek, Ascheim joined Sesame Workshop as chief strategy officer, and served as the executive vp of Sesame Learning.