Rodale's Interactive Head Ostroff Leaves; Management Shakeup
This story was written by Rafat Ali.
We had been hearing rumblings of changes and possible divestments at the health-lifestyle publisher Rodale over the last year or so, and it seems things are finally moving: Bill Ostroff, who was president of Rodale Interactive and CMO, is leaving the company. He was in the interactive position for only a year..previous interactive head Michael Silberman left in May last year to join as GM of New York magazine's nymag.com.
According to Mediaweek, two of Ostroff's direct reports will now report to Steven Pleshette Murphy, CEO of Rodale. Gregg Michaelson was promoted to EVP, customer marketing and will assume Ostroff's interactive duties. The other, MaryAnn Bekkedahl, continues as EVP, group publisher, Rodale. More details in the release here. The company also had some senior editorial changes, which are detailed here in the release.
Meanwhile, the speculation about company's future continues, as the company retained JPMorgan a year ago to look at strategic options, including the option to raise more money for the privately held company to do more online acquisitions. It did sell off Backpacker magazine last year to Active Interest Media, and some sources say the same may be done to Runner's World group, or the Bicycling group, though the company has repeatedly denied it.
By Rafat Ali