CBS Interactive general manager Mark Larkin announced several personnel changes in an email to staff obtained by TVNewser, highlighted by the departures of his boss, senior vice president and GM Greg Mason, and of CBSNews.com executive editor Neil Katz.
Larkin will assume some of his former boss’ duties, taking over co-management of the business unit, which includes CNET, CBS MoneyWatch.com, BNET, ZDNet, and TechRepublic, as well as continuing to oversee CBSNews.com.
Katz left to become executive news editor at AOL Huffington Post Media Group, and Kevin Hayes will pick up some of his duties.
More on the personnel shifts from Larkin’s email, after the jump…
Team,
It’s been a big week for CBSNews and we are on quite a tear. In April, CBSNews.com reported double-digit year-over year increases across all metrics; unique users grew 15%, visits increased 27%, minutes were up 25%, and page views +59%. In video, CBSNews.com streamed 20 million videos in April, up 113% over year ago and time spent increased triple digits as well (519%).
Totally amazing work! Truly a result of the great focus and effort you’ve all been putting in around the major news events we’ve experienced. The CBS News Town Hall event with President Obama was a great success, we’ve launched the weekly show What’s Trending, and the traffic in May thus far is off the charts.
We’ve experienced some change as well. Neil Katz, one of our leaders in the news organization, is leaving us and we wish him well. We’re lucky to have someone in house in Kevin Hayes whose amazing work at Crimesider has helped bring it to new heights. I am happy to report that Kevin will be taking over many of Neil’s duties, including Crimesider, The Feed and our new new tech and lifestyle vertical. In addition, Eddie Martinez will be branching out from Crimesider, continuing his outstanding work there and spending some of his time helping Charlie Cooper out on TechTalk as we zero in on technology as a strong focus for us going forward. David Freeman will continue to head up our outstanding health coverage will report directly into Dan Farber.
We’ve also added some new hires in key positions. Ysolt Usigan is heading up the new tech and lifestyle vertical, reporting to Kevin, and in the DC bureau we’ve hired Corbett Daly as CBSNews.com’s Deputy Politics Editor, reporting to Kevin Hechtkopf. Ysolt started this week and Corbett joins the DC bureau next week.
Congratulations to Kevin and Eddie and welcome to Ysolt and Corbett. I am confident these changes will position us to be even more competitive.
In addition, we’ve experienced some leadership change at CBSi. As you all know from Jim’s note earlier this week, my current boss, Greg Mason has decided to leave the company, and I’ve been asked to take over co-management of the business unit. That includes all of the CNET properties, the CBSi business properties (MoneyWatch, BNET, ZDNet and TechRepublic) as well as continuing to manage CBSNews.com. I know change can sometimes be unnerving, but I want to assure you all that the ongoing success of CBSNews is integral to my new role. I will continue to be an advocate for CBSNews.com both within CBSi and the broadcast organization.
More information about our plans for the business unit will come soon, but for now just do what you guys have been doing all along: delivering outstanding, timely content to our audience.
Thanks.
Mark