Revolving Door Newsletter: 10.09.12

Zynga Employees Flee; NBC Shakes Up Leadership

October 9, 2012

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Zynga is falling apart at the seams as its stock price crashes from $12 to $2. There has been a steady stream of departures from the game-making company in recent weeks, including the brothers who created Words With Friends and Laurence Toney, the general manager of Zynga Poker. The latter man saying goodbye is key, as the company wants to move into the real-money gambling space. Poker is Zynga's longest-running franchise. Current employees fear layoffs and Fortune hears Mark Pincus, who holds 50.15 percent of the voting shares, has less than a year to turn the company around. That will be difficult without COO John Schappert, CCO Mike Verdu and CMO Jeff Karp, all who jumped ship too...

The Village Voice cuts "This Modern World," the comic created by Dan Perkins that has been a fixture in the paper since 1997. The cartoonist saw the news coming, as former EIC Tony Ortega was a long-time champion of the strip... The OC Register hires Brad Johnson as food critic. He won a James Beard Award and a Cordon Bleu World Food Media Award... Consumer Reports will lay off at least 70 people in dramatic budget cuts. The magazine is $7 million over budget... NPR makes a couple changes, elevating Madhulika Sikka to executive editor and Neal Carruth to head of the business desk. They had been Morning Edition executive producer and election editor, respectively... NBC News shakes up its leadership team with a slew of promotions. Among them is new 'Rock Center' executive producer Alex Wallace... CBS News hires Holly Williams as a corespondent. The Turkey-based former Sky News reporter had been freelancing for CBS for a few months...

Rahul Sabnis and George Simpson are out as executive creative director and creative director, respectively, of Havas Worldwide. Reckitt Benckiser wants new blood at the top of the agency, and when the client speaks, the ownership listens... Danielle Reardon leaves Moxie Interactive in New York to join Digitas, where she is VP/group director of marketing at the Publicis Groupe/VivaKi digital network's office in Gotham... Evan Fry returns to Crispin Porter + Bogusky as executive director of creative development. He had been at Victors & Spoils, which he founded in 2009... There is some speculation that AOL chief operating officer Artie Minson is the man pulling the strings, not Tim Armstrong. We wonder how the CEO feels about those rumors... And there are changes at Clear Channel Media, Digital First Media and more...

October 9, 2012: John Hendrickson has been named entertainment editor at Digital First Media. He had been managing editor of 'Reverb' at The Denver Post. (mb)

October 9, 2012: Ruben Keoseyan has been named VP of content at KVEA in Los Angeles. He had been executive editor at La Opinión. (FishbowlLA)

October 9, 2012: Nitin Chitkara has been named executive director of mobile at MediaBrix. He had been monetization & mobile strategy consultant at TV Guide. (mb)

October 9, 2012: Magali Merat has been named VP of east coast sales at MediaBrix. She had been executive director of sales there. (mb)

October 9, 2012: Stephen Krikelis has been named SVP of business operations at MediaBrix. He had been VP of marketing and operations at NimbleTV. (mb)

October 9, 2012: Alex Wallace has been named executive producer of 'Rock Center' at NBC News. She will continue her role as SVP there. (TVNewser)

October 9, 2012: Ken Strickland has been named DC bureau chief at NBC News. He had been deputy DC bureau chief there. (TVNewser)

October 9, 2012: David Verdi has been named senior VP of newsgathering at NBC News. He had been VP of newsgathering there. (TVNewser)

October 9, 2012: Antoine Sanfuentes has been named senior VP at NBC News. He had been DC bureau chief there. (TVNewser)

October 9, 2012: Samantha Allen has been named senior digital editor at SourceMedia. She had been managing director at Investius. (mb)

October 9, 2012: Rachel Elson has been named executive editor at Financial Planning. She had been managing editor at Inc.com. (mb)

October 9, 2012: Andrea Canning has been named Dateline correspondent at NBC News. She had been correspondent at ABC News. (TVNewser)

October 9, 2012: Neal Carruth has been named senior business editor at NPR News. He had been supervising editor of the elections unit there. (release)

October 9, 2012: Madhulika Sikka has been named executive editor at NPR News. She had been executive producer of 'Morning Edition' there. (release)

October 9, 2012: Jerrell Jimerson has been named SVP of product for digital at Clear Channel Media and Entertainment. He had been president and CEO at Songbird. (release)

October 8, 2012: David Sweet has been named EIC at The North Shore Weekend. He had been managing editor at Sun-Times Media. (mb)

October 8, 2012: Cheryl Kramer Kaye has been named executive beauty director for the women's lifestyle and entertainment groups at AMI. She had been beauty & fashion director for Star Magazine there. (mb)

October 8, 2012: Alex Cohen has been named co-host of 'Take Two' at KPCC in Pasadena, Calif. She had been host of 'All Things Considered' there. (mb)

October 8, 2012: Kasey Farrar has been named head of communications at Percolate. He had been lead communications executive at Nokia. (mb)

October 5, 2012: Mark Brazier has been named VP of business development at VoterVoice. He had been director of sales-partnerships and resellers at CQ/RollCall. (mb)

October 5, 2012: Sherry Stanley Whitworth has been named EVP at VoterVoice. She had been chief products officer at 720 Strategies. (mb)

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