Condé Nast said Tuesday it will oust Chief Executive Bob Sauerberg in a dramatic shuffle that will combine the publishing giant’s domestic and overseas operations.
The Newhouse family that has long controlled Condé Nast said it will also promote Jonathan Newhouse, who had chaired the international division based in London, to chairman of the combined company.
The jolting news was revealed in an e-mail on Tuesday from Jonathan Newhouse and Steven Newhouse, the head of Advance digital operations.
In an interview with The Post, Steven Newhouse said the decision to consolidate operations was reached at a board meeting earlier this month. He dismissed speculation that the moves were a precursor to a sale of the company.
“We have never entertained the option of selling Condé Nast,” Steven Newhouse told the Post. “Condé Nast is not for sale and will not be for sale. This change is about competing in the global marketplace.”
Sauerberg has been with the company for 18 years, including the last eight as CEO, which have been among the most turbulent in the company’s history — marked by magazine closings and conversions of print magazines such as Self, Teen Vogue and Glamour to predominantly digital operations.
The move for the moment cements family control at the glitzy empire, which has been battling to get its US wing back to profitability.
Domestic Condé Nast — whose titles include Vogue, Vanity Fair, the New Yorker and GQ — lost $120 million in 2017 and was looking to cut those losses in half as part of a five-year restructuring plan that the family approved only a year ago. But it appears the turnaround has not reaped the gains that the family sought.
Jonathan Newhouse, whose smaller international wing was still profitable with titles including Vogue Paris and British GQ, had increasingly been flexing his muscle over the combined company.
Jonathan is a first cousin to family patriarch Donald Newhouse — chairman of the parent company, Advance Publications — and the late Si Newhouse, who had run domestic Condé Nast with an iron grip until he was slowed by Alzheimer’s disease and stepped away in the final years before his death.
Jonathan Newhouse has been the CEO of Condé Nast International for more than two decades. He will relinquish that post as he takes over as chairman of the combined company.
Steven Newhouse, the son of Donald Newhouse, had been CEO of AdvanceNet, and had been advocate of the digital transformation that included such moves as Advance’s acquisition of Wired and Reddit over the years.
“What has become clear is that our aspirations are no longer best served by our historical structure of running two separate companies,” the memo from Steven and Jonathan Newhouse said.
“Our brands have worldwide influence and impact, and our business is increasingly becoming global, as we continue to innovate in video, agency, conferences, consumer products, data and other brand-aligned projects. We have concluded that the time is right for us to combine our US and international companies to realize the full potential of Condé Nast for our audiences and our business partners.”
Sauerberg will remain CEO in the transition while a search for a CEO of the combined company commences, the company said.
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