Time named former Fox executive Rich Battista as president and chief executive officer.
Battista, who had been executive VP, succeeds Joe Ripp as CEO. Ripp continues as executive chairman of the board of directors.
Before joining Time, Ripp held positions at Mandalay Sports Media, Fox Television and was CEO of Gemstar-TV Guide. His TV background should be useful as Time looks to evolve from the decaying print magazine publishing business to a multimedia enterprise.
"I am deeply grateful to have had the opportunity to lead this tremendous company for the past three years, and I am excited about its future. We have made real progress in the transformation into a multimedia, multi-platform enterprise," Ripp said. "As we look to the next phase of our strategy, Rich is the right choice to execute our plans and deliver shareholder value.”
Historically, Time, which was spun off from Time Warner in 2014, has had difficulty successfully creating electronic versions of titles including Time, Sports Illustrated and Fortune. The company on Tuesday plans to launch the People/Entertainment Weekly Network, an advertising-supported streaming video service.
“I am thrilled and honored to lead this great organization and its exceptionally talented employees, particularly as we aggressively move to unlock the enormous potential of our brands across the media landscape," said Battista. "During this dynamic time in media, we are transforming Time Inc. to a cross-media company and are uniquely positioned to leverage our brands, scale, data and insights to significantly grow new lines of business in service to advertisers, marketers and consumers. I am eager to get started and to win.”
