Time Inc. Vet Finds Better Home At Meredith

by John Wolfe, Feb 15, 2006, 7:45 AM

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Andy Sareyan, a casualty of the restructuring late last year at Time Inc. that left more than 100 employees fired, landed on his feet this week when he was named president of Meredith Corp.'s flagship title, Better Homes and Gardens.

Sareyan worked at Time Inc. for the past 18 years, most recently as the president of Entertainment Weekly, before he lost his job in a bloodletting carried out by company chairman-CEO Ann Moore in late December. In addition to his role at BHG, Sareyan was also named executive vice president of Meredith Publishing Group. Both are new positions, the company said.

Sareyan's appointment was announced by Jack Griffin, president of the Meredith Publishing Group, along with a flurry of additional executive appointments and promotions within the group. In his new role, Sareyan will direct all activities of Better Homes and Gardens magazine, and will coordinate all activities of the BHG brand across the Publishing Group. BHG Editor in Chief Karol Nickell and Publisher Amy Wilkins will report to him.

The company said that Sareyan also will oversee, on a dotted-line basis, the senior BHG managers in the brand's various revenue support groups--including consumer marketing, partnership marketing, database, and newsstand. Sareyan's previous experience at Time Inc. also includes a stint as president of the Parenting Group and founding publisher of Real Simple. He also served as associate publisher of InStyle.

In other announcements, Meredith named its first chief marketing officer by appointing Nancy Weber to the position. Weber now works as the company's vice president/group marketing director, and will now lead the development and implementation of Meredith's marketing effort.

Griffin also announced that Wendy Riches has been promoted to executive vice president of Meredith Publishing Group--a new position--from her current role as executive vice president of Meredith Integrated Marketing. Among other responsibilities, Riches will be responsible for leading the strategy, operations, and development of Meredith's Internet businesses including BHG.com, AmericanBaby.com, and other sites. She will also oversee the launch and deployment of new online initiatives in the shelter, parenthood, and women's lifestyle fields. Like Sareyan and Weber, she will report to Griffin.

In addition, Tom Harty was promoted to executive vice president, Meredith Publishing Group--another new post. Harty will oversee several of Meredith's consumer magazine titles and its group sales unit, the company said. Also, Jack Bamberger was promoted to senior vice president, corporate sales. He joined Meredith last summer from Gruner+Jahr, and currently serves as vice president, corporate sales.

The company also said the following employees have been given expanded responsibilities within the Group:

Michael Brownstein, senior vice president and publishing director, expands his responsibilities to include oversight of advertising sales and marketing for Family Circle magazine.

Doug Olson, senior vice president of operations, assumes oversight for Meredith's Newsstand Group.

Mike Lafavore, editorial director, will assume editorial oversight for Family Circle magazine.

A Meredith spokesman said the extensive changes were made at the same time because Griffin wanted to have a full team of executives in place in order to take advantage of a rapidly changing marketplace.

"He thinks about it from a holistic viewpoint instead of a silo perspective," the spokesman said. "This is all part of his strong belief that we need to use our assets effectively across the company and we need to have the right people in place to allow us to do that. He looks at it from a much bigger perspective. This enables us to have the right people in leadership positions who can focus on the things we need to do to move quickly to market with new ideas."

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