Time Inc. CEO Laura Lang unveiled a major restructuring at the nation’s largest magazine publisher yesterday — reflecting many of the changes management consulting firm Bain & Co. had suggested.
While insiders are still worried that there could be a new round of cutbacks in the short term, most of the emphasis in the new alignment is on trying to grab more ad dollars for digital and print properties.
That’s not too surprising in a division where operating profit tumbled 40 percent in the quarter ended June 30 — and the outlook for the current quarter is also bleak.
In one move, Paul Caine, who had moved into the office of chief revenue officer during the short reign of former CEO Jack Griffin, adds group president to his portfolio.
He will be responsible for “driving the overall ad revenue in the company,” according to a memo Lang sent to staffers yesterday after addressing a quarterly management meeting in the morning.
The company is seeking to reach out to big advertisers to get them to invest across platforms in a broad array of titles.
While that is a noble goal, media companies have to guard against the temptation of offering huge discounts for ad purchases that marketers were going to make anyway.
The trick is to make sure advertising is climbing by enticing marketers onto new platforms.
David Geithner, brother of US Treasury Secretary Tim Geithner, moves up to replace Caine as head of the Style and Entertainment Group, which includes the company’s crown jewel, People.
Faced with some serious newsstand erosion in the category, People recently unveiled a huge TV ad campaign designed to get people to start buying it on newsstands again.
Evelyn Webster is the head of the Lifestyle cluster, which includes Real Simple and the London IPC titles. Her former boss, Sylvia Auton, who was sent back to London to head IPC after a run at the helm of the entire Lifestyle Group out of New York, will now be reporting to her.
Todd Larsen, the former president of Dow Jones, is the new head of the Sports and News groups, which includes Sports Illustrated and Time.
Larsen, as part of his charge, is going to lead the development of an international strategy for Time Inc.
Lang, in her memo, said, “We must take a disciplined approach to paid content. We will say ‘no’ to things we have said ‘yes’ to in the past. We will stop giving away so much of our content for free.”
She added: “We will use our data to become better marketers in the digital world and to launch new data-driven consumer products.”
Lang is clearly eyeing the mobile market. “We will deliver content whenever and wherever the consumer wants,” she said. “We need more technology to do it.”
One key job that remains unfilled is head of consumer marketing, a hugely important job.
That has been vacant since Executive Vice President Steve Sachs exited in the spring. “The search is ongoing, and I hope to have something to share very soon,” she said.
In addition, Lang promoted Fran Hauser to head an innovation lab where employees can present their ideas. “We really need a way to harness those disruptive ideas that can come from anywhere,” she said.
Now comes the tough part, reversing the divisions’ declines.
Hot title
Henry Holt has moved up the publication date of “Killing Kennedy,” by Bill O’Reilly and Martin Dugard, by a week, with 1.25 million copies set to hit retail stores on Oct. 2.
That’s a fivefold increase from the first printing for “Killing Lincoln,” by O’Reilly and Dugard, which has spent the past year on the best-seller list, where it is currently No. 4 on the Times list.
“They think it [‘Killing Lincoln’] is going to sell over 2 million copies in hardcover, and they think ‘Kennedy’ will sell more than that,” O’Reilly, host of The O’Reilly Factor on Fox News Channel, told Media Ink.
(Fox News is owned by News Corp., which also owns The Post).
O’Reilly and Dugard do not add to Kennedy conspiracy theories and come down clearly on the side supporting a lone gunman.
O’Reilly said it was J. Edgar Hoover who first pushed a conspiracy theory, because it was a way for his FBI to get jurisdiction over the case, which otherwise would have fallen to the Dallas Police Department as murder — even of a president — is a state crime, not a federal one.
The book takes great pains to meticulously track assassin Lee Harvey Oswald and portray him as a delusional loner with a failing marriage.
“I had access to the FBI agent who was assigned to Marina Oswald, [widow of Lee Harvey]. That’s why we were able to know so much about Oswald’s movements,” said O’Reilly.
The author also said he had unfettered access to a lot of other FBI agents who did not want to be named but were cooperative and confirmed information for O’Reilly.
While he seems certain that JFK bedded Marilyn Monroe at Bing Crosby’s home in Palm Springs, Calif., after he became president, he debunks another long-running gossip staple — that Bobby Kennedy also had a fling with Marilyn.