Active Interest Media Reorganizes With Exec Promotions | People on the Move
Popular Mechanics has a new editor-in-chief, Nicolas Neubeck was tapped as the first creative director of HearstMade, GQ expands its editorial staff and more.

After consolidating seven divisions into four groups—Active Living Group, Home Group, Marine Group, and Equine Group—Active Interest Media announced several leadership promotions.  

Jonathan Dorn, who formerly served as the general manager of the Outdoor group and as the interim general manager of the Healthy Living group, is now taking on the role of group president of the Active Living Group. He will also continue his duties as the chief innovation officer for AIM where he has been building the company’s creative services, video platforms and online education departments.

Leading the company’s in-house agency Catapult Creative Labs is Andrea Kupfer, who is taking on the role of VP and managing director. Tasked with managing the day-to-day operations of the division as well as serving as the primary strategic contact, Dorn says that Kupfer is ideal for this role because of “her deep knowledge of custom client work and her experience running a marketing services agency,” and the fact that she’s helped lead Catapult in reaching record numbers the past three years.

Tom Winsor, Gary DeSanctis and Peter Miller, who are the current general managers of the  Equine, Marine and Home Groups, respectively, were promoted to the roles of group president of each division.

CEO of AIM Andy Clurman said in a statement that “Tom has transformed Equine by pivoting to world-class events and memberships. Gary has grown profitability at Marine by 60 percent over the last four years while continuing to innovate with nonstop new products and services. And Pete has grown the Home business by 50 percent over the last four years by improving its media mix, shows and introducing lead generation.”

To round off the promotions, chief financial officer Michael Henry is adding the role of chief operating officer to his responsibilities. He will now be tasked with oversight of AIM’s audience development, circulation, newsstand and production teams.

Here are the rest of this week’s people on the move…

Hearst Magazines announced that the Popular Mechanics brand will relocate from the New York City headquarters to the Easton, Pennsylvania branch—where the company’s enthusiast brands, like Bicycling and Runner’s World, are housed—and in conjunction with the move, Ryan D’Agostino, who currently serves as Popular Mechanics’ editor-in-chief, is leaving the brand and taking on the role of editorial director of projects for Hearst Magazines.

Technology editor Alexander George, who joined the magazine in 2014 will succeed D’Agostino and will oversee the brand’s editorial operations from Easton and report to Bill Strickland, the editorial director of the Enthusiast Group.

Remaining in New York, D’Agostino will be tasked with  developing new editorial strategies and cross-platform initiatives for Hearst Magazines’ brands, and will report directly to chief content officer Kate Lewis.

HearstMade, Hearst Magazines’ branded content studio, appointed Nicolas Neubeck as its first creative director, according to a report from WWD. Neubeck, who has served as creative director for Hearst Digital Media for the past four years, previously worked on editorial content for all of the company’s magazine brands.

Reporting to CCO Kate Lewis and marketing president and publishing director Michael Clinton, Neubeck will work closely with editorial director of HearstMade, Brett Hill, to continue growing the division, as well as working with brands to ensure that each brands’ voice is integrated in the content produced for partners.

Other editorial hires and moves at Hearst were reported by WWD this week:

• Coveteur’s beauty director Katie Jayne Becker was tapped as beauty and health director at Elle.
• Elle’s executive beauty editor, April Long, is joining Town & Country, where she will serves as the new beauty director.
• And Jamie Rosen, who has served as beauty director at Town & Country for nearly eight years and recently also served as beauty director for Harper’s Bazaar, is transitioning to contributing editor where she will be responsible for a monthly column, in addition to serving as the director of strategy and partnerships for Ziip Beauty.

GQ is expanding its editorial staff this week. Rachel Tashjian and Taryn Bensky are joining the men’s fashion magazine as a style writer and senior fashion market editor, respectively, as part of editor-in-chief Will Welch’s effort refresh the brand with an emphasis on style “cover-to-cover.”

Tashjian most recently served as deputy editor for Garage magazine where she covered style, celebrities, high fashion and more. Starting on Feb. 6, she will be tasked with daily fashion coverage for GQ.com, as well as contributing to the brand’s other platforms.

Coming from Hero and Heroine magazines, Bensky most recently served as the fashion market editor, in addition to working as a freelance stylist. In her new role, she will be responsible for leading the coverage of the fashion market across all of the brand’s platforms. Her first day was Jan. 28.

CNX, Condé Nast’s creative agency, named Xavier Teo as its new executive creative director and Brendon Volpe as its head of strategy this month. Teo joins Condé from advertising agency Anomaly, where he spearheaded all creative work for the global Budweiser account, from brand campaigns to social/digital content. And Volpe most recently was with advertising agency Team One, where he was in charge of digital strategy for Lexus and leading the brand’s overarching digital vision and roadmap. Both Teo and Volpe will report to managing director of CNX John Deschner.

Meredith Corp. announced three executive-level promotions this week, all effective Feb. 1:

• VP of digital ad product and ops Nicole Lesko was promoted to SVP of ad product & revenue operations.
• Karla Jeffries, former general manager of Meredith Digital, was tapped as the VP of business operations.
• And Andrea Reynolds, most recently the executive director of growth, is now the VP of growth. Lesko, Jeffries and Reynolds will all report to EVP and president of Meredith Digital, Stan Pavlovsky.

The New Yorker also made several appointments this week:

• Distinguished writer in residence at New York University Eliza Griswold is joining the magazine as a contributing writer, who will be tasked with traveling around the United States to cover religion, politics and the environment. She’s been freelancing for The New Yorker since 2003.
• Sue Halpern, who is a regular contributor to The New York Review of Books and a scholar-in-residence at Middlebury College, is also joining the magazine as a contributing writer and will tasked with writing regular columns about politics and technology. She’s also contributed to The New Yorker since 2005.
• Also taking on the role of contributing writer is Anna Wiener who will write regular columns about the tech industry from Silicon Valley.
• Karen Quinn joined the social media team as its new director. She has a decade of experience working in both print and digital media, including working at as the editorial director of ChefSteps.
• Lastly, Naib Mian was added as a full-time researcher to the editorial interactives team, where he will help turn out interactive digital content.

Eighteen-year veteran of New York magazine, Jared Hohlt, is leaving the company, according to a report from Politico’s Morning Media newsletter. Most recently, Hohlt has overseen the print magazine and had reportedly been a candidate for the editor-in-chief role, which was recently vacated by Adam Moss and filled by David Haskell.

Pitchfork announced three promotions this week, according to the same report from Politico’s Morning Media newsletter. News director Amy Phillips moved to the role of managing editor, and Matthew Strauss and Evan Minsker were tapped as news editors from their former roles of deputy news editor and associate editor, respectively.

After seven years with Ars Technica, Cyrus Farivar announced that he is leaving the Condé Nast brand to join NBC News as an investigative tech reporter.

Quill, the magazine of the Society of Professional Journalists (SPJ), tapped Lou Harry as its new editor and program manager. Harry is bringing several years of experience as an editor to Quill, including 11 years of experience as the Arts & Entertainment editor for the Indianapolis Business Journal and five years as the editor-in-chief of Indy Men’s Magazine. SPJ also appointed former The Republic reporter Matthew Kent as its new awards/programs coordinator.  

Tech reporter Simone Stolzoff stepped down from his role at Quartz to join design company Ideo as its new writer and designer within its design learning studio. Based in San Francisco, Stolzoff covered the influence of tech on jobs, as well as industry ethics and the culture of Silicon Valley. Prior to Quartz, he wrote for Fast Company and Vice, among other publications.

Forbes’ added several editorial staffers this week:

• Former executive editor at Mic.com, Kerry Lauerman, is taking on the role of executive editor of news and will be based in New York.
• Dawn Chmielewski, who has written for Recode, Deadline Hollywood and The Los Angeles Times, will serve as the senior editor of Technology, Media and Entertainment, and will be based in Los Angeles.
• CNBC’s Jillian D’Onfro is joining the magazine as a staff writer for Technology, based in San Francisco.
• Another CNBC alumna, Ruth Umoh, will cover diversity and inclusion from New York.
• And in London, Iain Martin will serve as the European news editor. Most recently, he was with Storyful as an editor.

Lars Finanger was promoted to director of sales and brand development at Triathlete, where he will be responsible for establishing the brand’s vision and strategy for traditional ad sales, partnerships and sponsorships. Finanger, who most recently served as the magazine’s brand development manager, had previously served as advertising director and associate publisher of Triathlete, when it was called Inside Triathlon, from 2005-2012.

Demian Perry was tapped as the VP of product for Remedy Health Media where he will be responsible for product strategy and creating the roadmap for Remedy’s portfolio of digital brands and software applications. Prior to this, Perry spent over a decade at NPR where he founded the Mobile Product Team and grew engagement on the company’s mobile app to 25 million unique monthly users.

Crain’s New York Business tapped Tom Curtin as its new publisher. Curtin most recently served as the publisher of NJ Biz, and prior to that, he served as the publisher of American Banker and The Bond Buyer.

Skift brought on Wouter Geerts as its new senior research analyst from Euromonitor where he served as a travel consultant.

Former Weekly Standard congressional reporter, Haley Byrd, is joining CNN as a Washington-based reporter.

Jason Schwartz, who formerly contributed to Politico’s Morning Media newsletter, is joining Sports Illustrated as its new senior editor, investigations and enterprise. Before Politico, Schwartz had contributed to ESPN the Magazine and Boston Magazine.

Co-writer of Politico’s Playbook newsletter Jake Sherman is joining NBC News and MSNBC as a contributor in addition to his current role.

Politico’s Marc Caputo and Chris Cadelago, who led the Florida Playbook and reported for the White House team respectively, are shifting to the 2020 team as national political reporters.

Former account manager for Politico Pro, Eleanor Anaclerio, is joining Boston-based creative agency ThinkArgus, where she will serve as the senior account manager.