• May 20, 2003

Primedia has promoted two of its group chiefs, Jim Ritts and Robert Metz, to the rank of executive vice president.

Ritts will continue in his current posts as a Primedia corporate officer and as president and CEO of the company's Television Group, a title he has held since April 2000. A co-founder of Channel One, Ritts will oversee several of the company's flagship properties, including Channel One Network, Films for the Humanities and Sciences, Primedia Digital Video and the Gravity Games.

Metz will retain his current roles as a Primedia corporate officer and as president and CEO of the company's Consumer Guide Group, a division which publishes free consumer directories for the housing market. He was previously a top executive with HPC Publications, a company bought by Primedia in 1994.