• by David Goetzl , July 17, 2007

An executive who played a top role in raising the viability of two of Scripps Networks' cash cows will retire at the end of the year. Judy Girard, who led Food Network and now HGTV, will end a decade at Scripps/ Her impact on the transformation of the company at-large is hard to overstate.

A replacement is expected to be named by January.

Now president of HGTV, she held the same role at the Food Network--at a time when Emeril Lagasse and "The Iron Chef" were linchpins.

At HGTV, she helped launch "Design Star" and "Color Splash," and attempted to widen appeal to younger viewers and build its broadband offerings.

Food Network and HGTV have been at the forefront of shifting the principal focus of Scripps from a newspaper publisher and operator of local TV to a major cable player, as well as a new-media mainstay.

The 13-year-old HGTV has more than 90 million subscribers and 5 million visitors a month to its Web site. Under Girard, the Food Network--now a fully distributed network--grew by some 40 million homes, and ratings increased in kind.

Girard worked at Lifetime earlier in her career in programming.