Rogers moves to group publisher structure
Rogers Media is shaking up its management structure. Instead of a publisher for each of its titles, the company has streamlined to having four group publishers for its consumer magazines.
By Tamara Baluja, Associate Editor
Rogers Media is shaking up its management structure: instead of having a publisher for each of its 10 individual titles, the company has streamlined to having four group publishers for its consumer magazines.
Penny Hicks, who was publisher of Maclean’s, is now the group publisher for women’s service magazines—Today’s Parent, Chatelaine and Canadian Health & Lifestyle. Meanwhile, Flare publisher Melissa Ahlstrand is expanding her role to become the group publisher of the fashion and beauty titles, which include Hello! Canada, Flare and Cosmetics.
Rogers will announce a new publisher for current affairs, who will handle Maclean’s and Sportsnet, as well as a publisher for its French-language magazines, Châtelaine and LouLou, in the coming months.
“It’s important to evolve our business model in order to remain competitive,” said Steve Maich, senior vice-president and general manager of publishing at Rogers Media, in an emailed statement to J-Source. “The group publishing model allows us to take advantage of editorial and advertising synergies in each group, as we adapt to the rapidly changing media environment. Our focus remains on building our leading brands and making our content available to Canadians across all platforms.”
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It’s a move that mimics the consolidation of publishers at Postmedia Network last year. The company eliminated the role of publishers at its 10 daily newspapers and replaced them with three vice-presidents who share the publishing duties regionally for eastern Canada, western Canada and the Prairies.
Louise Leger, communications manager at Rogers Media, told J-Source that the changes will not affect L’Actualité publisher Carole Beaulieu or its business publishers, such as Ian Portsmouth, who will remain as publisher of Canadian Business, and Sandra Parente at MoneySense.
Tara Tucker, who was the publisher of Chatelaine, left the company after her role was eliminated, Leger said. Meanwhile, Rosemary Munroe, former publisher of Today’s Parent, is the new senior director of partnerships and new business for all magazine brands, such as the Today's Parent Approved program (Leger described it as consumer goods getting the “seal of approval” from experts at Today’s Parent.) Jim Hicks, who is expected to retire in the summer, is stepping back from his role as publisher of Cosmetics to become the magazine’s executive director instead.
This management restructure follows a string of changes at the editorial level over the last six months. Recently, the company has appointed Cameron Williamson as editor-in-chief of Flare, Sasha Emmons at Today's Parent, John Intini at Sportsnet, Karine Ewart at Chatelaine, as well as merged Canadian Business and Profit.
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- Cameron Williamson named editor-in-chief of Flare
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Tamara Baluja is an award-winning journalist with CBC Vancouver and the 2018 Michener-Deacon fellow for journalism education. She was the associate editor for J-Source from 2013-2014.