Management reorg at St. Joseph media group; Jacqueline Loch jumps over from TVA

Jacqueline Loch

Jacqueline Loch, until now the vice-president and group publisher of English brands at TVA Group (the publishing division of Quebecor Media Inc.) is joining the St. Joseph Communications, Media Group as vice-president content solutions. Her move is but one of the many changes resulting from a major management reorganization at St. Joe's. 

Duncan Clark

Duncan Clark, who joined the company in January as vice-president, digital has been named to the job of vice-president strategic development. A company press release said 

"In his new role Mr. Clark will lead the organization in working closely with St. Joseph Media’s brand and communication partners to develop measurable solutions that are platform agnostic, building community engagement through digital, social media, video, event and print channels strategically aligned with clearly defined client goals and objectives."

Douglas Kelly, who has been managing director of Strategic Content Labs since January 2014 has been promoted to senior vice-president strategic content labs.   

Responsibility for all production and customer service in digital and print production is being brought together under one group reporting to Darlene Storey, vice president production and consumer marketing.

St. Joseph has been moving towards a total integration of all of its branded print, digital and social media editorial and sales account management.  The upshot is that FASHION Magazine, Men’s FASHION, Weddingbells, Mariage Québec, Glow, Pure and Canadian Family’s digital and print platforms will all report to Lilia Lozinski, senior vice president and group publisher, women’s brands. Ken Hunt, publisher of Toronto Life.will be responsible for Toronto Life and torontoist.com’s platforms. 

Leaving the company as a result of the changes will be Debra Rother, longtime associate publisher advertising for the women’s group, and Lindsay Wells, associate publisher for Toronto Life. 

Canadian Living team hardest hit in layoffs by new owners, TVA Group

It was predicted -- and predictable* -- that the sale of Transcontinental Media's consumer magazines to the Quebecor Media's TVA Group would result in major organizational changes. A report in Mastheadonline says that some 25 layoffs were made late last week, many of them (paradoxically, it might seem) at the flagship brand Canadian Living. The layoffs included 

• longtime executive editor Doug O’Neill
• senior web editor Jennifer Gruden
• senior features editor Robin Stevenson
• assistant art direct Aimee Nishitoba
• associate art director Shelley Frayer 

In addition, senior marketing director communications and events Tracy Finkelstein, and senior marketing specialist Erin Quinn were let go. Ray Oster was laid off from the digital team as were Melissa Morra, digital product director Andrea Kolber, digital project manager Krystal Wong, and Scott Carefoot, product manager of The Hockey News.

Transcontinental Media sold 15 consumer magazines and related websites in eastern Canada to the TVA Group and in late May sold its Western Magazine Group (Vancouver Magazine and Western Living) to Yellow Pages.  

*TVA Group made no secret that it was going to focus the brands it acquired in the digital area. 

Three new group publishers named at Rogers Publishing

Sandra Parente

More changes at Rogers Publishing, with Sandra Parente, currently publisher of MoneySense and once a general manager of corporate sales for Rogers Media, becoming group publisher of Rogers’ current affairs group, which includes Maclean’s and Sportsnet.

Ian Portsmouth, who currently oversees Canadian Business and Profit will now have all three consumer-facing business magazines in his portfolio as he takes over as group publisher, business, including MoneySense. 

Sophie Banford, newly arrived from TVA (where she was publisher at  Clin d’Oeil and Moi & Cie.) has been pointed group publisher of the Quebec-based women’s titles, responsible for such titles as LouLou and Chȃtelaine, Banford (like Parente) will report to executive publisher Lorraine Hoefler. 

The three appointments round out other management changes made recently as part of creating a group publisher structure: the appointments of Penny Hicks as group publisher for women's service magazines Chatelaine, Today's Parent and Canadian Health & Lifestyle and of Melissa Ahlstrand as group publisher of fashion and beauty books, including Flare, Cosmetics and Hello! 

Related posts:

• Editor of Report on Business leaves Globe to be director of content strategy for Rogers Publishing
• Major shakeup in progress at Rogers Publishing with switchover to group publisher structure
• Sasha Emmons named as EIC of Today's Parent
• Karine Ewart shifts from Today's Parent to be EIC of Chatelaine
• Canadian Business absorbs Profit and goes monthly 
• John Intini named EIC of Sportsnet magazine

Time Inc. shakes up and consolidates, cutting 500 jobs, as it prepares to spin off magazine division

Time Inc., preparing to spin off its magazine division by this summer, is reported to be cutting about 500 jobs out of its complement of 7,800. A memo to staff Tuesday from CEO Joe Ripp said that three publishing groups set up only 6 years ago -- News and Sports, Style and Entertainment and Lifestyle -- are being consolidated into one, to be co-managed by two executives, Evelyn Webster and Todd Larsen.

The layoffs, reported by the New York Post, are largely the result of integrating the various titles acquired from American Express Publishing, including Travel + Leisure and Food & Wine. It has already been reported that Executive Travel was being closed.

Among the casualties of the shakeup was a 21-year veteran of the company, David Geithner, who oversaw People, InStyle and Entertainment Weekly (he is the brother of the former U.S. Treasury Secretary Tim Geithner) and Ed Kelly, who was CEO of American Express Publishing.

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.