• by Joe Mandese  @mp_joemandese, July 10, 2009

Steve Sternberg, one of the most influential and best-known media researchers on Madison Avenue is out as executive vice president-audience analysis of Interpublic's Magna unit. The move, the latest in a string of longtime executive departures within Magna, has sent shock waves of surprise among researchers in the agency and media communities as word began leaking out in the past 24-hours.

Sternberg, who is known for producing some of the best and most insightful analysis of TV audience and ratings trends, and for his opinions about Nielsen's methods for estimating them, had been with Interpublic for 27 years, starting in the research department of McCann-Erickson in 1982.

Sternberg, whose last day at Interpublic is July 15, declined to comment, but in a statement, Interpublic said the change reflects a "broader, global mandate" to "provide deeper marketing intelligence, develop a broad base of data management tools and drive improved investment strategies across the Mediabrands family on a global basis. Magna must power the buying for Mediabrands, deliver actionable insights for media strategies and create deeper integration with the activation teams inside [Universal McCann], Initiative and beyond."

Mediabrands is the corporate entity within Interpublic that oversees all of its media services divisions, including Magna, UM and Initiative.

An Interpublic spokesman said a long-term succession plan is still being figured out, but that, "audience analysis remains a critical part of Magna, but in the new structure Magna will now fold audience analysis into our broad-based data analytics, tools and macro-economic trending activities."

Lisa Quan, vice president-director of audience analysis and Brian Hughes, vice president-manager of audience analysis, both of whom had reported to Sternberg, will continue to lead the analysis, assembly and distribution of those reports.

In addition to his role at Interpublic, Sternberg is known as an influential pundit on TV programming trends, and is frequently quoted by the trade and consumer press. He also is an influential member of some key industry organizations, including the Media Rating Council's Television Committee, the Nielsen-funded Council for Research Excellence, the American Association of Advertising Agencies' Media Research Committee, and the Google Ads Advisory Board.

Sternberg, who was a founding member of the Magna team when it was conceived inside Interpublic in 2001, follows several other senior executives to depart the unit, including former chiefs Bill Cella and Larry Blasius; former head of the new defunct Magna Entertainment unit, Bill Hilary; and former Magna Senior Vice President-Director of Forecasting Bob Coen, who retired and was succeeded by Global Forecasting Director Brian Wieser.

Under its new management team, headed by President Elizabeth Herbst-Brady, Magna has become more focused on marketplace intelligence, and the shift in the audience analysis department seems to mirror what Magna touts as its three main "pillars: Data/Global Market Intelligence; Analysis/Proprietary Tools and Analytics; and Strategic Investment/Leverage by Flexible Scale."

Those same elements have been transforming all of Interpublic's media services operations under its Mediabrands management approach.

In June, for example, Interpublic launched Cadreon, a new, highly automated system for buying digital media that shifts the focus from buying advertising avails online, on TV and in digital out-of-home media, to one of "buying audiences" based on Cadreon's proprietary algorithms and models.