Coverage: Conde Nast CEO is leaving amid restructuring

Condé Nast Chief Executive Bob Sauerberg is stepping down, just months after he outlined an ambitious plan to return the magazine publisher to profitability by 2020.

Jeffrey A. Trachtenberg of The Wall Street Journal had the news:

Mr. Sauerberg will stay on in his role until the appointment of his successor, who will oversee both Condé Nast and Condé Nast International in the newly created role of global chief executive.

The two companies had previously operated independently with their own CEOs, senior teams and publications, which include Vanity Fair, Vogue and the New Yorker in the U.S., and Vogue Paris and British GQ overseas.

Steve Newhouse, chairman of Advance.net, the digital arm of Condé Nast parent Advance Publications Inc., said the time was right to combine the U.S. and international businesses. As Condé Nast started implementing Mr. Sauerberg’s turnaround plan, “We began to see that the structure we had was holding us back,” Mr. Newhouse said in an interview. He said the combined entity was looking for a new leader who had global experience.

Georg Szalai of The Hollywood Reporter noted that Conde Nast recently made other changes:

The company said it is planning to continue operating out of its headquarters in New York and London.

In other executive changes, Conde Nast Entertainment recently named digital media veteran Oren Katzeff its new president, succeeding Dawn Ostroff, who left in June to oversee content at Spotify.

In 2011, Sauerberg launched Conde Nast Entertainment, which has grown into a production and distribution studio that produces digital video content averaging more than a billion views a month and that has released four feature films and several TV series.

“The shift to one global company will help us realize our ambition to deliver the highest-quality journalism, experiences and value to our audiences, advertisers and partners on all platforms by allowing us to more quickly transform ourselves to address their evolving needs and by enhancing the collaboration between colleagues around the world,” the Newhouses said.

Todd Spangler of Variety reported that Conde Nast has been affected by lower revenue from its print publications:

Like other publishing firms, Condé Nast has struggled with the erosion of its print products. Earlier this month, the company announced that it would kill the regular print run of Glamour, coming after it ended the print editions of Teen Vogue and Self in 2017. In addition, the company is seeking to sell Brides, Golf Digest and W.

In a bid to boost digital revenue, in 2011 Sauerberg launched Condé Nast Entertainment, a studio division that produces digital video content averaging over 1 billion views per month and has released four feature films and several TV series. The company named Oren Katzeff, previously head of programming at Tastemade, as president of CNE, after Dawn Ostroff exited to join Spotify this summer.

Other senior execs of Condé Nast and Condé Nast International, including Wolfgang Blau, president of the international division, will remain in their positions. The company plans to continue to operate out of headquarters in New York and London.