Several other changes to the company’s executive team accompany Smith’s move. Taking over as CEO is Thomas Ascheim, 45, formerly general manager of Viacom’s Nickelodeon Television; Ascheim helped create and launch the kid-friendly Noggin and other television and online extensions for Nickelodeon Digital Television Networks. Greg Osberg, currently an executive vice president and worldwide publisher of NEWSWEEK, becomes the company’s president. He succeeds Harold Shain, who becomes president and CEO of Newsweek’s Budget Travel magazine. On the editorial side, the position of Editor-in-Chief will not be filled, making NEWSWEEK’s editor, Jon Meacham, the highest-ranking newsroom executive. Fareed Zakaria continues to oversee the magazine’s international editions.
Both Meacham and Ascheim will report to Ann McDaniel, who assumes the newly created role of managing director for Newsweek Inc. A former managing editor and Washington bureau chief at the magazine, McDaniel will also continue on as a vice president with The Washington Post Company, NEWSWEEK’s corporate parent. “With the great addition of Tom to our business team and with Jon Meacham and Fareed Zakaria leading our talented staff of journalists, I am confident that we will find even more ways to make interacting with NEWSWEEK products a worthwhile experience for our readers and our advertisers,” says McDaniel.
The changes come at a particularly difficult time for publishing in general and for newsweeklies in particular. But Meacham, the magazine’s editor, is confident about the company’s reorganization. Says Meacham: “This is the best of all possible worlds for us. Rick will continue to be a source of wisdom, Tom is terrific and Ann gives us a unique blend of corporate and journalistic leadership. These aren’t easy times for the business, but we are in a position, with Greg and his team, to go from strength to strength.”
