• by Erik Sass  @eriksass1, February 3, 2010

Wednesday brought some high-ranking departures at the nation's leading newspaper-distributed magazines, publishers, with Parade's Editor in Chief Janice Kaplan leaving the Advance-owned publication, and Marcia Bullard, president and CEO of Gannett's USA Weekend, stepping down from her post.

Kaplan's departure from Parade was somewhat unexpected, and while no reason was given for the decision, she hinted that it was not her choice in a memo to staffers. It read, in part: "I'm disappointed not to have the opportunity to continue this great run."

After joining the publication in 2006, Kaplan assumed the top editorial role in 2008. Things seemed to be going smoothly on the editorial side after Parade got a new CEO, Jack Haire, in April 2009. But the pub saw some changes on the business side, with president Randy Siegel moving up to head local digital strategy for Advance Publications, Conde Nast's newspaper group.

In her memo, Kaplan noted the publication's success during her tenure, including growing distribution through "510 newspapers across the country -- up from about 360 when I arrived here -- with a circulation of 32 million."

While Parade has suffered along with the rest of the magazine business during the economic downturn, it fared better than most consumer magazines, suffering a mere 11% decline in ad pages in 2009 compared to 25.6% for the industry overall.

Separately, Gannett announced the departure of USA Weekend president and CEO Marcia Bullard, who is retiring after 35 years at the company, effective March 31. Her responsibilities will be assumed by Charles Gabrielson, who has been named president and publisher of the newspaper-distributed weekly magazine.

Bullard also noted the extensive reach achieved by the publication under her leadership, including partnerships with "more than 700 newspapers," reaching "44 million people every weekend" (which includes its Web site traffic.)

USA Weekend's ad pages were down 14.7% in 2009. On Monday, Gannett reported fourth-quarter results which showed a smaller revenue loss and higher profit than previous quarters, due mostly to an aggressive cost-cutting strategy implemented last year.