Condé Nast has been navigating a dark and stormy terrain in the past several weeks with the closing of four magazines, the layoffs of hundreds of employees, and no end in sight for the once-venerable Si Newhouse-led powerhouse.

But in between all the bad news, the company's digital arm, Condé Nast Digital, has been working to organizes its magazines' Web sites into a cohesive structure. Today's announcement of Condé Digital's ad sales overhaul into five different brands proves that the company is finally in the works to revamp their digital presence.

"Under the new sales structure, three advertising directors who are responsible for overseeing revenue for specific brands will report to the newly named publisher, Josh Stinchcomb," the company said. "Each of Condé Nast Digital's 26 online brands will now fall into one of the five categories, which are fashion and beauty; food, well-being and travel; bridal; technology; and culture and thought leader. In addition, Alice McKown has been named executive director of marketing, enabling marketing to provide better service to the same five categories."

Full press release after the jump.

CONDE NAST DIGITAL ANNOUNCES ENHANCED SALES STRUCTURE

New Publisher and Executive Director of Marketing Named

NEW YORK, October 22, 2009 -- Conde Nast Digital has focused its sales force by creating five separate brand categories, announces Drew Schutte, senior vice president and chief revenue officer. Under the new sales structure, three advertising directors who are responsible for overseeing revenue for specific brands will report to the newly named publisher, Josh Stinchcomb. Each of Conde Nast Digital's 26 online brands will now fall into one of the five categories, which are fashion and beauty; food, well-being and travel; bridal; technology; and culture and thought leader. In addition, Alice McKown has been named executive director of marketing, enabling marketing to provide better service to the same five categories.

"The improved sales structure allows for more focus on the individual brands as they grow, while leveraging the scale of all 26 sites," said Drew Schutte. "This offers increased flexibility for our advertisers to reach our engaged audience of nearly 50 million unique users per month in a multitude of new ways. The new structure also allows for seamless coordination with our print sellers, as we meet the increased demand for cross-channel selling."

As publisher, Josh Stinchcomb will report to Schutte. Mr. Stinchcomb is responsible for all advertising sales revenue related to Conde Nast Digital's online properties. Alice McKown, in her role as executive director of marketing, will also report to Schutte, and will oversee advertiser custom ideation, magazine integration marketing, promotion, and sales support across all Web sites.

Mr. Stinchcomb was previously the executive director of the Conde Nast Digital Business Group where he oversaw sales and marketing for Wired.com, Ars Technica, Newyorker.com, Reddit, and Golfdigest.com. Stinchcomb originally joined WIRED in 1996 and has had several roles including west coast account representative and more recently, director of integrated marketing for WIRED Media in New York. In 2009, under Stinchcomb's leadership, Wired.com was named Website of the Year: News, Business, and Finance at the MPA Digital Awards. Stinchcomb was awarded Sales Team Leader of the Year by MIN: Media Industry newsletters in 2008.

Ms. McKown was the executive director of integrated services for Conde Nast Digital, where she oversaw collaboration between the magazines and digital brands, and generated marketing ideas for the integrated brands’ web sites. She came from The New Yorker where she had been the executive director of creative services. Prior to that, Alice was at New York magazine and nymag.com overseeing the development of integrated programs. Additionally, Alice held several roles at WIRED magazine from 1999 through 2006, including promotion director in the San Francisco office, and creative services director in New York. McKown was named Conde Nast Marketing Person of the Year in 2004.

"Josh has a proven track record of success at Conde Nast Digital, and I know he will continue that trajectory working across all 26 of our digital brands," said Schutte. "Alice continues to develop creative ideas for our clients, and she and Josh will lead this integrated sales force to new heights."