New Structure by Meredith National Media Group Strengthens Role of Newly-Acquired Brands from Time Inc and The Foundry
Meredith Corporation—a leading media and marketing company serving 175 million American consumers including 80% of US Millennial women every month—unveiled a new sales and marketing structure for its National Media Group.
The new structure strengthens the role of its newly-acquired brands from Time Inc and The Foundry in its go-to-market efforts. It also continues to leverage the collective strength of the company’s corporate and digital sales and marketing personnel in delivering on the key needs of its marketing clients and agency partners.
“Meredith offers our clients and partners an unparalleled combination of trusted brands, coveted audience reach, actionable insights and analytics, and innovative marketing solutions that drive best-in-class results.To fully capitalise upon our portfolio of brands and capabilities, we are aligning our sales and marketing activities within an account-driven and solution-oriented go-to-market approach that continues to place our iconic and trusted brands front and centre,” said Meredith National Media Group President, Jon Werther.
Meredith’s new National Media Group sales structure puts in place strategic account teams comprised of brand, corporate and digital sellers and marketers, with a principal point of contact for each key account. Sellers and sales-focused marketers from former Time Inc category teams are being integrated into one of these new teams.
In addition, The Foundry and its creative ideation, branded content, and native capabilities are being integrated more tightly within the company’s digital business unit. This is a clear reflection of the importance of these capabilities to Meredith’s advertising revenue growth objectives.
From a brand sales and marketing perspective, Doug Olson, President Meredith Magazines, will expand his portfolio oversight to include a broader mix of Lifestyle, Food and Luxury brands.
Reporting to Olson will be Group Publishers Stephen Bohlinger, Giulio Capua, Laura Frerer-Schmidt, Mark Josephson, Daren Mazzucca and Carey Witmer, each of whom will oversee the various portfolio of brands.
As part of his role as EVP/President of PEOPLE and Entertainment Weekly, Bruce Gersh will oversee the following Publishers: Cece Ryan (PEOPLE); Ellie Duque (Entertainment Weekly); and Monique Manso (People en Español).
The company’s Corporate Sales team, led by EVP/Chief Revenue Officer Michael Brownstein, will continue to serve as a central point of contact for its largest cross-channel and cross-portfolio partnerships—in close coordination with its brand and digital sales and marketing teams—and ensure that client and agency communications are streamlined as part of these partnerships.
The company’s Digital Sales team, led by Senior Vice President Marla Newman, will drive the its largest digital advertising initiatives across the company portfolio.
Her group will be focused on leveraging the company’s full suite of digital platforms and proprietary ad technology products, and creating scalable and innovative digital solutions. Newman will continue to report to Digital President, Stan Pavlovsky.
Finally, The Foundry will become the central creative lab and branded/native content studio for the company. Chris Hercik will expand his existing role to serve as Chief Creative Officer, reporting into Pavlovsky.
Hercik will oversee branded/native content creation in addition to all marketing functions for the unit. Studio M, Meredith’s former branded content creation arm, will be merged into The Foundry.
“We are excited to extend our successful go-to-market approach to our newly-acquired Time Inc brands, and to scale The Foundry’s capabilities across all of our sales efforts. Clients and agency partners told us that this approach best balances their needs for relevant brand, category, ad product and platform expertise—and their desire for actionable insights and analytics—within a simplified sales communication structure.
“As clients and agency partners increasingly seek to work with fewer media companies more strategically, we believe that our portfolio of brands and capabilities—together with our go-to-market approach—positions Meredith with an unparalleled ability to drive their strategic advertising and marketing objectives,” said Werther.
