Time Inc., the nation's the largest magazine publisher, is losing one of its top business-side execs to The Washington Post. The executive, Jed Hartman, who is group publisher of news and business at Time Inc., is joining the Post as its chief revenue officer.
The departure costs Time Inc. an executive with more than a decade of experience at the company. And Mr. Hartman -- who oversees advertising, marketing and event sales for Time, Fortune and Money magazines and their websites -- has recently been a fulcrum of change at a company bent on radically reinventing itself as more than just a print publisher. This year, for instance, Mr. Hartman helped lead Fortune and Money magazine's separation from CNNMoney.com. He also helped steer the redesign of Time.com.
Earlier this year, Mr. Hartman was in the running for the role of executive VP of advertising sales at Time Inc., a company wide role similar to chief revenue officer. But he was passed over for Mark Ford, who led the company's sports group, including Sports Illustrated.
At the Post, Mr. Hartman fills a CRO position previously held by Kevin Gentzel, who announced in October than he was heading to Yahoo to lead North American ad sales. Mr. Hartman will lead the print and digital advertising teams at the Post, as well as the conference business.
"I've been very consistent in my career in staying close to the highest quality journalism that is also doing incredible things from an innovation front," Mr. Hartman told Ad Age. The Post has "a very strong team and they're being very aggressive to make sure consumers can get content" across a variety of platforms, he added. "I'm extremely excited about The Washington Post."
Last month, the Post introduced a new tablet app that comes preloaded on certain Amazon Fire devices, marking the first time the Post and Amazon have formally worked together since Amazon CEO Jeff Bezos bought the newspaper in August 2013.
Mr. Hartman starts Dec. 15. A Time Inc. spokesman said the company does not expect to name a successor in Hartman's role of group publisher.
His exit marks the second recent business-side departure from Time magazine, which saw Moritz Loew, VP-sales and marketing at Time Inc., leave last month. Mr. Loew was a key architect of the Time.com redesign and reported to Mr. Hartman.
The search for a publisher of Time magazine -- as well as a president of People and Entertainment Weekly magazines -- has been underway for weeks, according to the Time Inc. spokesman.
Time Inc. -- which also publishes People and InStyle magazines – reported third-quarter ad revenue of $428 million, about the same as a year prior, with gains in digital advertising helping offset print declines. But the company also revised its revenue outlook downward for the year, largely because of weak print-ad sales at its weeklies.
