• by Gavin O'Malley  @mp_gavin, October 24, 2011

Time Inc.’s Lifestyle Group on Monday named Jody Jones as its new SVP of digital.

Reporting directly to Evelyn Webster, EVP of Time’s Lifestyle Group, Jones will be expected to develop original content and products, while building advertising and marketing programs and cross-platform synergies.

In a word, Webster said the team’s focus is on “growth. The Time Inc. Lifestyle Digital Network averages 16 million unique visitors per month,” she said Monday. 

Jones most recently served as SVP of digital programming and content integration at Discovery Communications. Before that, she held positions at Scripps Networks Interactive, Martha Stewart Living Omnimedia and AOL.  

Mirroring the entire media industry, Time Inc. has recently had to rethink its business in the face of continuing market shifts.

At the beginning of the year, for instance, it created a branded solutions unit, which combines Time Inc. corporate sales and marketing with Time Inc. digital corporate sales operations.

Leslie Picard, who previously served as president of Time Inc. corporate sales and marketing, was then tapped to lead the sales, marketing and creative organization. In turn, Kirk McDonald, who had led Time Inc. Digital corporate sales, decided to leave the company to pursue what a company representative called "other opportunities." 

Late last year, Time Inc. also lost Wayne Powers, its top display ad salesman in North America, to Yahoo. Powers -- who had been president of the media group of Time Inc., the consumer magazine division of Time Warner -- was responsible for launching the Time Inc. Digital Network, and developing integrated digital and analog sales across all of the magazines' online and offline properties.

Around the same time, Time Inc. said it was revamping its corporate sales and marketing structure, promoting Stephanie George to executive vice president and chief marketing officer, and Paul Caine as executive vice president and chief revenue officer.

The Time Inc. Lifestyle Group is made up of Real Simple, Cooking Light, Southern Living, Health, All You, This Old House, Coastal Living, Sunset, Health.com, MyRecipes.com and MyHomeIdeas.com.