Another day, another big announcement from Condé Nast headquarters.  CEO Charles H. Townsend said today that his company will undergo a major overhaul in the sales and marketing departments.  A company press release indicated that Condé will task its individual titles to “focus on brand centricity and drive growth and innovation” by  adding digital sales and marketing to content management.  Publishers will now be responsible for branding initiatives across all platforms as the media giant continues to push their digital agenda.

CMO Lou Cona, who will oversee this transition, shared his enthusiasm for the endeavor:

“Condé Nast Digital brings tremendous power to the portfolio of assets we are able to offer the marketplace.  By integrating its sales and marketing expertise into the Media Group, we are positioned for maximum growth and are better aligned with the industry.”

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Just over three months after a massive restructuring, Condé Nast seems to be well on the way to recovery — if the announcement of three executive promotions and publishers’ awards doled out last night at an annual Florida meeting are any indication.

Today, we learned of three promotions within the company. Lou Cona (pictured at right), senior VP of the Condé Nast Media Group, has been promoted to executive vice president of the group, while publishers Laura McEwan of Teen Vogue and Howard Mittman of Wired (at right) have been given the additional titles of vice president.

What’s more CEO Charles Townsend also presented awards at an event last night during the company’s annual publishers’ trip to Key Largo, Fla. (The trip itself is proof of more optimistic times; last year’s publishers’ meeting took place in NYC.) Reports WWD:

“And in perhaps an indication, if not a wholehearted endorsement, of where the publishing world’s future lies, Townsend looked beyond the usual suspects for Publisher of the Year, giving the honor to Drew Schutte, chief revenue officer of Condé Nast Digital, who oversees such digital properties as newyorker.com, luckymag.com and glamour.com, which saw significant revenue growth over 2008. The Corporate Executive of the Year prize went to Robert Sauerberg, president of Condé Nast Consumer Marketing.”

Sauerberg has been working on the digital publishing consortium between several magazine publishers, including Condé, Hearst, Time Inc., Meredith and News Corp., and has been seeking other forms of revenue for the company, including licensing agreements.

After the jump, the official announcement from Condé Nast about the three promotions.

Conde Awards Return –WWD

Previously: Condé Nast’s Dead Titles May See New Life In Licensing Deals, New Publisher Consortium Gets A Name

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Today Folio magazine posted an interview with Drew Schutte, senior vice president and chief revenue officer of Condé Nast Digital, about the direction of Condé Nast online and the future of the publishing company.

Unsurprisingly, Schutte was defensive about Folio‘s assertion that Si Newhouse‘s titles have been late to adapt to the whole World Wide Web thing. At the same time, Schutte’s reassertion of the old Condé adage that the Internet will never replace magazines and that any digital content is merely a “supplement” to the print product is really starting to sound stale, considering the major losses Condé’s print editions have suffered lately.

Read on for some key points from Schutte’s interview

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The New York Observer has a nice long, very smart, multi-bylined piece today about the future of newspapers. It’s worth reading the whole thing, but for those of you in a rush the short version is that newspapers should look more like Facebook! Kidding…but only sort of. Says the NYO:

The media of the 21st century is one that is blogged — not a negative thing, see later in the piece! — and merged with the users’ own experiences and viewpoints synthesized with the original. If postmodernism came to literature in the ’80s, it’s got to come to journalism now.

In the meantime here’s a quick takeaway from some of the major players the NYO spoke with:

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Conde Nast Digital, formerly known as CondeNet, doesn’t appear to be wasting much time with its reshuffle. The company just announced it has named Drew Schutte senior vice president & chief revenue officer effective immediately. Schutte will be responsible for managing the newly consolidated digital sales team and working closely with the publishers on integrated sales throughout all of the company’s titles.

Lisa Hughes has been tapped to take over Schutte’s former position as vice president & publisher of The New Yorker. Hughes has been vice president & publisher of Conde Nast Traveler since 1995. Full release after the jump.

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Who will win the coveted prize at the upcoming Condé Nast executive retreat in Naples, Florida? Will it be Glamour vice president and publisher Bill Wackermann? Vogue‘s Tom Florio? Wired vice president and publishing director Drew Schutte? House & Garden‘s Joe Lagani?

To quote Triumph the Insult Comic Dog quizzing Star Wars fans: “I’m sorry, I’m very sorry. The correct answer is ‘Who gives a sh*t?’”

No offense to our friends at WWD, but how exactly is this a story? Speculation from anonymous insiders about your parent company’s retreat in Naples?

Sorry, very sorry.