Rodale Names Beth Buehler Chief Operating Officer
Additionally, Women's Health publisher Laura Frerer-Schmidt promoted to oversee corporate sales.
Buehler
Beth Buehler has been promoted to chief operating officer at Rodale, the Emmaus, Pennsylvania-based publisher revealed today.
In the newly created role, Buehler, who most recently served as Rodale's SVP of digital, will oversee operations in several key areas across the company, including but not limited to marketing, business operations, editorial production, digital revenue and partnerships, and ecommerce platform Rodale's.
"Beth will work across our teams to ensure Rodale has the most nimble, scalable infrastructure to create and capitalize on revenue-generating opportunities," said Rodale chairman and CEO, Maria Rodale, in a statement. "I am confident that her strong digital background and varied skill set will enable her to further align and integrate our systems and unlock greater growth opportunities for the company."
Buehler first joined Rodale from Dow Jones in 2013, where she spent five years, most recently serving as head of business management. Her promotion at Rodale takes effect immediately.
Additionally, Rodale has promoted Women's Health VP and publisher Laura Frerer-Schmidt to SVP and managing director of corporate sales. While retaining her publishing duties at Women's Health, Frerer-Schmidt will add to her purview Rodale's entire corporate sales structure, overseeing integrated, cross-brand advertising programs as well as Rodale's corporate branding.
"Since Laura has been at the helm, Women's Health has consistently delivered impressive results with smart, multi-tiered programs that attract advertisers, emotionally engage readers, and generate significant revenue," added Maria Rodale. "I know she will bring that same passion and creativity to her new role as she leads both Women's Health and corporate sales teams to even greater heights."
To call 2016 a tumultuous year for the health and wellness publisher would be an understatement, but under Frerer-Schmidt's leadership, Women's Health has been a source of consistent growth for the company, in both print and digital. The brand has seen five straight years of revenue growth, and in 2016 alone, ad pages, print revenue, page views, and digital revenue are all up, according to data from the Publishers Information Bureau and comScore.
See also: Laura Frerer-Schmidt on Women's Health's Run 10 Feed 10 race series.
Frerer-Schmidt rejoined Rodale in 2011 after spending 13 years at Condé Nast, most recently as associate publisher of Self.
Renee Appelle, who has served as Rodale's national VP of corporate sales and marketing since 2014, will remain in her current role and report to Frerer-Schmidt, a Rodale spokeswoman tells Folio:.
Today's announcements are the latest in a nearly year-long string of high-level comings and goings at Rodale, which also publishes Men's Health, Prevention, and Runner's World, among others. The shakeups began with the arrival of editorial director Mike Lafavore last September, which was quickly followed by president Scott Schulman's departure in October to allow Maria Rodale to take on a more active day-to-day role at the company.
Several rounds of layoffs soon followed, with group publisher Chris Lambiase, SVP Brian O’Connell, VP of operations Alex Klapwald, SVP Anne Alexander, and Men's Health editor-in-chief Bill Phillips among those shown the door.
In June, the company named Stephen Twilliger its new CFO.
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