rock n' roll - american style

HUGE changes announced at CanWest yesterday. I am now an employee of CanWest MediaWorks. Check out the list of heavy hitters below. WOW!

CanWest restructures in convergence push; Hires group of top U.S. execs; Creates Canadian, international units

The Toronto Star
Tuesday, October 5, 2004
By Tony Van Alphen

CanWest Global Communications Corp. has hired five top executives of U.S. media companies including former vice-presidents of Time Warner, the New York Times and Playboy magazine in an apparent bid to boost its convergence play.

The Winnipeg-based media giant announced yesterday it has split its operations into two divisions and appointed the senior U.S. media executives to capitalize on "growth opportunities" and meet "changing consumer demands."

CanWest, the country's biggest media company, said it had restructured its Canadian operations, including newspapers and television interests, into CanWest MediaWorks and its foreign properties into CanWest MediaWorks International.

One media industry watcher said the appointments show senior management is accelerating its drive to cross-sell and promote CanWest's different media offerings.

"These people were not brought in to maintain the status quo," said the analyst who requested anonymity. "They are there to effect change."

In addition to the American appointments, the company said it promoted two senior Canadian executives internally to head the two divisions.

They are Rick Camilleri, who will move from being chief operating officer (operations) at CanWest to president of CanWest MediaWorks, and Tom Strike from chief operating officer (corporate) at CanWest to president at the international division.

The American executives who are joining CanWest include Kathleen Dore as president of television and radio at CanWest MediaWorks. She was president at Rainbow Media Holdings and responsible for U.S. cable networks AMC (American Movie Classics), IFC (Independent Film Channel) and WE (Women's Entertainment).

The company appointed Michael Williams, former vice-president and chief information officer of The New York Times Co., as president of publications for CanWest MediaWorks.

Joseph Mangione will become president of sales and marketing at CanWest MediaWorks. He was a former senior vice-president at Time Warner and Turner Broadcasting, vice-president of marketing at Playboy and integrated marketing publisher at Better Homes and Gardens.

The company appointed Peter Ashkin, former executive vice-president of digital media services at America Online, to the post of senior vice-president of digital content at CanWest MediaWorks.

It also hired another America Online executive, Arturo Duran, as senior vice-president with interactive responsibilities. Duran was a senior AOL executive who focused on generating revenue through subscriptions, advertisers and content providers.

In announcing the appointments, Camilleri said in a statement that CanWest's priority is to adapt its publishing interests to reflect changing consumer demands and readership trends through the introduction of new products and "digitized delivery systems."

"The Number 1 priority of our broadcasting operations is to address challenges to the conventional television business model posed by the proliferation of new speciality television channels and certain regulatory advantages they currently enjoy," Camilleri added.

He also revealed that CanWest will continue to make "significant" investments in new programming to boost ratings and increase revenues at the Global television network.

"We will generate more Canadian television production, including profitable news and information programming," he said.

Camilleri also said CanWest is actively looking at opportunities to start new channels and expand its position in the radio sector.

The appointments and promotions pushed CanWest's class A shares up 15 cents to $10.45 in trading yesterday on the Toronto Stock Exchange.

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