Quarto Communications names Sellwood COO, Caldwell director of content development

Sellwood

Major changes and added responsibilities are part of a reorganization at Quarto Communications, one of Canada's most highly regarded mid-sized publishers.

• Terry Sellwood, who was general manager, has been named chief operating officer of the company.
• Penny Caldwell, editor-in-chief of Cottage Life has been named director of content development for the company. Part of her responsibility is to get six episodes of the new Cottage Life show in the can to run in the fall on the Travel & Escape channel. (Working with her on the project is Jake Thomas of Riley Lake Productions,who was involved in an earlier venture of Quarto into television.)
• Patrick Walsh, has been named brand manager  of Outdoor Canada magazine in addition to being editor of the magazine.
• Randy Craig has been named brand manager of Cottage Life and explore magazines.
• Douglas Thompson, editor of Canadian Home Workshop has also been named brand manager for the title.
• Rebecca Caldwell, a former senior editor at Chatelaine who covered managing editor Michelle Kelly's mat leave, has joined the CBC as an associate producer for the George Stomboulopoulos show.



Caldwell

• Quarto has hired a new circulation manager, Nancy Parker, who came from distributor Disticor. She replaces Heather Maxwell-Tufford who left to join the about-to-be launched SportsnetChatelaine magazine at Rogers Publishing.

The changes come soon after Quarto sold a 15% stake in the company (with an option for up to 10% more)  to Blue Ant Media Inc., a television and digital startup, launched by Michael MacMillan, the former executive chairman of Alliance Atlantis. One of the avowed aims of the partnership with Blue Ant was to expand Quarto's audience reach. Blue Ant already has interests in such properties as GlassBOX Television and a range of digital and broadcast properties including BITE TV, AUX TV and the Travel & Escape Channel (see above). (The company has applied for a license for a TV specialty channel called Cottage Life TV which is now wending its way through the approval process at the CRTC.)

Company president and CEO Al Zikovitz says that the addition of content and brand management to traditional job descriptions is a reflection of existing realities and the continuing need  to expand all the brands in all forms of media.