• June 27, 2007

Chris Tolles has been named the new CEO of Topix, the community-based news Web site that cracked Hitwise's Top 20 most-visited news and information properties for the first time this May.

Tolles brings 17 years of industry and entrepreneurial experience to the CEO position. Prior to Topix, he co-founded and was vice president of marketing at Spoke Software, an enterprise social networking company.

Tolles succeeds Rich Skrenta, the company's original CEO and founder, who will move to the Topix board and serve as a strategic advisor. According to Skrenta, Tolles is the right person to lead the company as it has shifted the focus of its operations from news aggregation to sales and marketing.