Lifetime Gets New Ad Chief for TV, Digital Ops

Lifetime has tapped a top buyer at OMD to head its ad sales operations. Debbie Richman, managing director at the agency, takes over as executive vice president of ad sales on April 1 in time to steer the upfront.

She effectively replaces Lynn Picard--although with a slightly lesser title--following the departure of the ad sales president last year after a 13-year Lifetime career.

Richman will oversee sales for the flagship network and two lesser-distributed channels, Lifetime Movie Network and Lifetime Real Women, as well as the company's expanding digital operation. Richman has served as managing director of national broadcast at OMD since 2005, where she oversaw a team focusing on digital buying that stretched from online video to VOD.

With Richman leaving, OMD said that longtime vet Chris Geraci takes over as managing director of national broadcast investment. Page Thompson, CEO of OMD North America, said "(Geraci) brings a new dimension to the role with his expertise in emerging media (including) developing successful cross-platform deals." Geraci became OMD's director of national television buying eight years ago.

advertisement

advertisement

Richman at Lifetime reports to CEO Andrea Wong, who took the top Lifetime role a year ago. Since then, she has also hired new heads of marketing (former WB executives Bob Bibb and Lew Goldstein), research (Mike Greco, formerly of MTV) and distribution (Lori Conkling from ESPN). She kept Susanne Daniels as head of entertainment; Daniels developed the popular "Army Wives," which returns this summer.

Wong said Richman has developed "innovative partnerships and client models in this fast-changing business environment," and will work to leverage "the expanding platforms against the ... Lifetime brand and our programming assets."

In fact, Richman has helped craft several high-profile deals involving branded integration, including a link between Nissan and NBC's "Heroes," and Doritos with Comedy Central's "Colbert Report."

Before OMD, Richman was director of national television at Optimum Media, which was folded into the sprawling Omnicom media operation. From 1993-1997, she headed the national broadcast Johnson & Johnson account at Universal McCann.

Next story loading loading..