Laura Lang, the outgoing Digitas CEO, stopped by Time Inc. on Monday for her first face to face with the brain trust of top executives that she will inherit when she takes over as CEO of the publishing group in January.
Lang is a mystery woman to most of the Time Inc. brass, but if they were looking for any clues to her intentions they were disappointed.
The meeting included seven of the eight executive vice presidents, including The Troika: Editor-In-Chief John Huey, Chief Financial Officer Howard Averill and Chief Legal Counsel Maurice Edelson.
The triumvirate ran the company for nine months on an interim basis after Time Warner CEO Jeff Bewkes booted Jack Griffin, a transplant from Meredith, from the top job after less than six months at the helm of the nation’s biggest publisher.
Also in the mix at the meeting was Steve Sachs, executive vice president of consumer marketing, which some think will be a big area of interest to Lang with her strong digital background.
Evelyn Webster, who heads the group formerly known as Southern Progress Corp., which includes Southern Living, Cooking Light and Real Simple, was out of the country and did not attend.
That is one division that has been mentioned as a sale possibility, since its Birmingham, Ala., base and its reliance on monthly magazines puts it out of kilter with the weekly and digital properties out of New York, including People, Sports Illustrated and Time.
Paul Caine, executive vice president and chief revenue officer, was present, as was Mark Ford, EVP and president of the Sport Group, and Stephanie George, the chief marketing officer who survived a scare in the Griffin era.
Aside from the Troika, many of the executives at the meeting had been put in place when Griffin shuffled the deck as part of the dizzying changes unleashed in his first 100 days.
Afterwards, Huey and Bewkes headed downstairs to meet Time Editor Rick Stengel.
Time, while it still has its name on the door, long ago lost its position as flagship — if by flagship one means the biggest, most profitable and muscular magazine in the company.
The mantle has shifted to People, which generates more than half the division’s profit, followed by the second most-profitable mag, Sports Illustrated.
But Lang’s first visit to Time instead of People could not be taken as a slight, since People’s top editor, Larry Hackett, was down in Washington interviewing President Obama for a story in next week’s year-end issue.
But if anyone was expecting any grand vision of corporate strategy to unfold during the visit, they were disappointed.
Lang is an outsider and while many inside were glad that the long search for a CEO is over, they still do not really know her. One editor said, “I hope she respects the journalism that is behind it all.”
After Griffin, another outsider, shook things up, many expect Lang to adopt a go-slow approach.
Sources say that if there is one potential land mine for Lang, it could come from the edit side if she does not honor the separation of church and state, which is probably stronger at Time than at any other publisher.
But so far, Lang has not ruffled any feathers. “It was all cordial, nice, good to see you and look forward to working with you after Jan. 1,” said one source of the meeting.
Bye, Getty
Life.com, which won a National Magazine Award from the American Society of Magazine Editors last year, is going to have its joint venture with Getty Images dissolved.
“The Life brand will become a channel on Time.com Web site on Jan. 31, ending the joint venture between Time Inc. and Getty Images,” a spokeswoman confirmed.
Up to eight Life staffers may lose their jobs as a result of the JV being scrapped.
A spokeswoman said that efforts will be made to place them elsewhere in the company.
Sinking feeling
Reader’s Digest Association CEO Robert Guth may not get a lofty Huffington Post-like price when he finally spins off Allrecipes.com, the top food Web site that is now on the block.
At one point, some speculated that the recipe site could go for far north of $300 million. (AOL paid $315 million for HuffPo back in February.)
Now, some are wondering if the sale price for Allrecipes.com will crack the $200 million range.
It has some well-heeled suitors: Scripps Networks, owner of the Food Network and HGTV; Meredith, which recently purchased Every Day with Rachael Ray from RDA; and, Amazon.com are all said to be lining up for a taste of the books.
An RDA spokesperson declined to comment.