Turner Entertainment Reworks itself...

[jayman75]

This was posted on Yahoo! Entertainment News 3/12/03. I thought it was kind of interesting how they are reassigning the roles. At least now we know who to bitch at!!!



Turner Broadcasting System has united in holy wedlock the programming and sales staffs of CNN, TNT, TBS, Cartoon and all of its other cable networks, promoting Mark Lazarus to take charge of the restructuring.

The odd man out in the new arrangement is Brad Siegel, a 10-year veteran of Turner who has resigned as president of the Turner Entertainment Networks.

Lazarus replaces Siegel, though his new title, president of the Turner Entertainment Group, reflects the fact that advertising sales, marketing and other business functions will fall under Lazarus' bailiwick along with programming.

Succeeding Lazarus in the two jobs of president of sales and marketing for Turner Entertainment and president of Turner Sports is David Levy, who was co-president of TBS Intl. with Andy Bird. Bird now becomes sole president of TBS Intl.

CNN will also be a part of the new business model, with Jim Walton, president of the CNN News Group, adding responsibility for the networks' global-advertising-sales operation.

The reporters and editors of CNN are likely to blanch a little at what looks like a tearing down of the wall separating editorial and sales. But Walton's boss, Phil Kent, chairman and CEO of TBS Inc., said CNN has instituted "checks and balances" under Rich Davis, executive vice president of broadcast standards, to "raise flags if there's any question of journalists compromising with sales. We want to make sure that nothing crosses the line."

Kent said that, in the new initiative, TBS has created three groupings: entertainment, news and cartoon. Lazarus takes over entertainment (encompassing TNT, TBS, Turner Classic Movies, Turner South, Turner Sports and Turner Entertainment Sales and Marketing) as Walton will run CNN. Kent will name the head of Cartoon's joint programming and sales operation in the next month or so.

Turner veterans say the elevation of Lazarus, with his background in sales and sports, means the company is convinced that sales expertise will be more important than programming experience over the next year or two.

Lazarus and his staff may need all of their sales savvy as they deal with a potentially depressed advertising marketplace triggered by a war in Iraq (news - web sites), particularly if the war ignites further terrorist attacks on the U.S.

And TNT is racking up big advertising dollars from its sports properties like weekend NASCAR (news - web sites) events and an exclusive National Basketball Assn. doubleheader every Thursday night during the NBA season.

Lazarus took charge of negotiating these rights, which helped TNT push through a 10 percent increase in license fees from cable operators each year for the next six years. By mid-decade, TNT will end up making more money from cable operators than any other nationally distributed cable network except ESPN.

As future sports properties come up for renewal, TNT and TBS under Lazarus are likely to go after them aggressively, even if that means bidding against the broadcast networks and ESPN.

With the heads of sales and programming for the entertainment networks now reporting to him, Lazarus said, "You'll see a lot more collaboration between the two."

Some functions won't be restricted to an individual network but run across all of them, such as affiliate sales, legal, human resources, finance, communications, strategy and operations.

Kent sent an internal memo to the staff praising Siegel, who's leaving, for "his lasting contributions to the success" of the Turner networks.

Siegel said he's going to take some time out to plan his next industry move.