Battista Named Prez Of 'People,' 'Entertainment Weekly'

Rich Battista has been named executive vice-president of Time Inc. and president of celebrity titles People and Entertainment Weekly -- effective April 6, the magazine publisher announced Monday.

Battista previously served as CEO of Mandalay Sports Media and also held senior executive positions, including president of Fox’s national cable networks. From 2004-2008, he was CEO of Gemstar-TV Guide International, where he helped lead the company’s financial turnaround after a period of reverses, ultimately overseeing its sale for $2.3 billion in 2008.

Time Inc. also announced that Karen Kovacs has been promoted to group publisher of People and Entertainment Weekly. Kovacs will continue to lead People’s sales and marketing teams. Kovacs has been the driving force behind a number of major brand extensions for People, including the launch of the People Magazine Awards and People Now, its daily online video program.

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This is just the latest in a series of personnel changes at Time Inc.’s celebrity flagships, following the publisher’s spinoff as a stand-alone company by Time Warner in June 2014.

Most notably, last month the titles began merging their staffs, allowing them to “share more resources and [work] closely together,” as Time Inc. CEO Joe Ripp explained in an internal memo detailing the restructuring. People and Entertainment Weekly also have a single editorial director, Jess Cagle, who took over as editor of People following the departure of former People editor Larry Hackett in January of last year.

However, Time Inc. emphasized that the merging workforces did not foreshadow any combination of the titles or suggest that one is subordinate to the other.

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