Revolving Door Newsletter: 12.07.12

Layoffs at NewsBeast; HuffPost Gets a New CEO

December 7, 2012

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The Newsweek layoffs are finally here. "The sad moment has arrived when we must go forth with the editorial staff reductions that we discussed in person with all of you several weeks ago. Employees in the affected positions will be notified today," Tina Brown wrote in a memo. The New York Observer hears it is "a bloodbath" affecting about half the editorial staff. Commentary editor Damon Linker and iPad editor Melissa Lafsky already jumped ship, to the University of Pennsylvania and a start-up, respectively. Meanwhile, Brown promotes three staffers including Justine Rosenthal, the new editorial director of The Newsweek Daily Beast Company. Maybe not the best timing. At least the publication's staff can't say they didn't see this coming. Still, a remarkably sad day for a once-remarkable publication...

The grand total of The Daily staffers joining the New York Post? That would be just two: Jesse Angelo and Richard Johnson, whose appointments are already announced. Everyone else is out of luck, despite rumors to the contrary. Stay classy, News Corp... Patch hires Steven Kalin as president and chief operating officer. He joins the hyperlocal effort from Westwood One, where he was COO. Meanwhile, AOL taps Jimmy Maymann, formerly of AOL International, to serve as CEO of the Huffington Post... Yahoo Finance snags Barron's associate editor Michael Santoli as senior columnist... Shape contributing editor Cynthia Sass moves to Heath as a contributing editor of nutrition... The New York Daily News loses multimedia editor Joyce Chen who jumps to Us Weekly where she'll be web editor...Martha Stewart Living recipes editor Ariana Phillips moves to Every Day with Rachael Ray as associate food editor...

Hearst names David J. Barrett chairman of the television side of the business. He had been CEO, a title he will retain. Jordan Wertlieb is the new president of the group. He previously served as executive vice president, overseeing many of Hearst's 29 stations around the country... Oh good: Glenn Beck and Vince Vaughn are producing an online reality competition of some sort. The Doomsday Clock moves forward another minute?... Jack Cafferty is leaving CNN after seven years in The Situation Room with Wolf Blitzer...

R/GA starts a shop in Austin, Texas, complete with 15 staffers and certainly some sweet ad agency stuff. Richard Ting, EVP, global ECD, mobile and social platforms, is heading up the operation, joined by mobile and social group director Kyle Bunch, ECD Paul Dery, Katrina Bekessy and others. Best of luck... Jason Whiting joins Huge as managing director of client services... And there are changes at Meredith Xcelerated Marketing, Springbox and more...

December 7, 2012: Jordan Wertlieb has been named president at Hearst Television. He had been executive vice president there. (FishbowlNY)

December 7, 2012: David Barrett has been named chairman at Hearst Television. He will continue as CEO there. (FishbowlNY)

December 7, 2012: Jason Whiting has been named managing director of client services at Huge. He had been managing director of Skinny and COO of Redscout at MDC. (AgencySpy)

December 7, 2012: Jordan Mastagni has been named editor-in-chief at Baggers. He had been editor there. (release)

December 6, 2012: Greg Kahn has been named chief business development officer at Meredith Xcelerated Marketing. He had been EVP, business development director, at Optimedia International. (release)

December 6, 2012: Steven Kalin has been named president and chief operating officer at Patch. He had been COO at Westwood One. (FishbowlNY)

December 6, 2012: Michael Santoli has been named senior columnist at Yahoo! Finance. He had been associate editor at Barron's. (mb)

December 6, 2012: Kyle Bunch has been named group director of mobile & social platforms at R/GA. He had been executive producer of mobile & social platforms there. (mb)

December 6, 2012: Cynthia Sass has been named contributing nutrition editor at Health. She had been contributing editor at Shape. (release)

December 6, 2012: Steven Swartz has been named president and COO at Hearst Corporation. He had been EVP and COO there. (release)

December 5, 2012: Joyce Chen has been named web editor at Us Weekly. She had been multimedia editor at New York Daily News. (mb)

December 5, 2012: Robert Raiford, Jr has been named production supervisor at Springbox. He had been producer there. (mb)

December 5, 2012: Lewis Barr has been named VP of legal and privacy at Janrain. He had been general counsel and corporate secretary at Fios, Inc. (release)

December 5, 2012: Ariana Phillips has been named associate food editor at Every Day with Rachael Ray. She had been recipes editor at Martha Stewart Living. (mb)

December 5, 2012: Carol Berman has been named executive producer of corporate communications at Comcast. She had been president at City Girl Media. (mb)

December 4, 2012: Susan Kaplow has been named VP of editorial operations at Refinery29. She had been VP and GM of life & style at The Huffington Post. (mb)

December 4, 2012: Kate Bernot has been named nightlife and events reporter at RedEye. She had been copy editor there. (mb)

December 4, 2012: Sean O'Neal has been named global chief marketing officer at Mail Online. He had been president at Vizu Corporation. (mb)

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