Joseph Ripp Named New Head of Time Inc.

Mr. Ripp’s appointment comes at a challenging time for Time Inc., the nation’s largest magazine publisher with titles like Time, People, Sports Illustrated and InStyle. Confronting a slumping advertising market, Time Warner explored a plan earlier this year to combine most of its magazines with titles from the Meredith Corporation. When that deal fell through, Time Warner said in March it would separate its print publications into a new company, allowing its main business to focuson the more lucrative television and film assets.

Mr. Ripp worked at Time Warner for nearly 20 years, holding a variety of senior positions, before leaving in 2004 to pursue a career outside of the company. He comes to Time Inc. from OneSource Information Services, a digital marketing and information company, which he joined in 2012 when the investment company he worked for acquired it.

In a phone interview Monday, Mr. Ripp said that while he was chief executive at OneSource he had chosen to use cash flow to reinvest in new data sources and a new computer system. He said he planned to adopt that pattern of reinvestment with Time Inc., though not necessarily with print magazines.

“Their subscription unit generates a lot of cash,” he said of Time Inc. “In the past, they were restricted with how to use that, and cash flows flowed to Time Warner. Now we have opportunities to reinvest in making the Web better and the iPad app better and into different industries as well.”

The selection of a new chief executive for Time Inc. was seen as critical because the challenges facing the newly created publishing company were expected to be substantial. The magazine industry has been under intense financial pressure as advertisers have migrated to other media platforms.

Time Inc.’s first-quarter revenue this year dropped 5 percent, to $737 million, as circulation revenue fell 11 percent. In January the company laid off about 500 employees, or 6 percent of its global staff.

One big question surrounding the future of Time Inc. is how much debt it will have to assume when it separates into a new company. Mr. Ripp said he had talked to Time Warner’s chief executive, Jeffrey L. Bewkes, specifically about that issue and had received assurances it would not be too steep.

“Look, Time Warner has already had two successful spinoffs,” he said referring to Time Warner Cable and AOL.com, and he said that Mr. Bewkes was invested in having this separation be successful as well. “So I am not worried,” he said.

In tapping a longtime former executive to head Time Inc., Time Warner may be adding a needed element of stability to its leadership. An earlier head of the division, Jack Griffin, was forced out of the job after less than six months in early 2011. He was replaced after a nine-month search by Laura Lang, whose background was in digital advertising.

Time Inc.’s titles continued to struggle, however, and when Time Warner announced the publishing spinoff, Ms. Lang said she would be stepping down. Mr. Ripp will succeed her in September, the company said.

Another executive who was widely considered a leading candidate was Michael Klingensmith, chief executive of Star Tribune Media Company in Minneapolis. Summer Wilkie, a Time Warner spokeswoman, said the company would not comment about speculation on anyone else. “But we’re really happy with Joe, he was our top choice candidate,” she said.

Article source: http://www.nytimes.com/2013/07/23/business/media/joseph-ripp-named-new-head-of-time-inc.html?partner=rss&emc=rss