New York-Fox Family Worldwide Inc. president of ad sales Rick Sirvaitis has become the latest executive to head for that network's exit.
He is joining Phase2Media, a year-old Internet-sales rep firm, as president.
Two weeks ago, Fox Family senior vice president of marketing Tom Lucas left, shortly after CEO Rich Cronin's departure.
Two current executives-Barbara Bekkedahl and John Carrozza-will assume Sirvaitis' duties. The network said that Sirvaitis would continue as a Fox Family sales consultant for an unspecified period.
Bekkedahl rises to executive vice president of ad sales from senior vice president, and she will now oversee the sales division's day-to-day operations. Carrozza-promoted to executive vice president from senior vice president of sales planning-will handle not only sales planning, but direct-response and paid-programming sales.
Fox Family Worldwide CEO Haim Saban said in a prepared statement: "Their talents and Rick's continued involvement will ensure that we will.build on a very strong primetime upfront and capitalize on recent ratings successes."
Sirvaitis was responsible not only for ad sales on cable's Fox Family Channel, but also for the Fox Kids block on Fox's broadcast network, on the Fox Kids Web sites and for a tie-in magazine and radio program.
Sirvaitis joined Fox Family's predecessor, The Family Channel, in 1995. Before that, he was executive vice president at Turner Broadcasting Sales Inc., overseeing ad sales for Cable News Network and TBSI's Web sites.
Sirvaitis was unavailable for comment. But in a statement released last week by Phase2-Media, he said he hopes to apply "my knowledge and expertise learned in the TV-advertising industry" to the Internet world.
The firm's clients include Web sites for American Greetings Corp., The Associated Press, magazine publisher Hachette Filipacchi and the Summer Olympic Games in Sydney, Australia.
