Industry Moves: WPNI CEO Caroline Little Resigns; WaPo Online Editorial Now Reports To Weymouth
By David Kaplan - Fri 11 Apr 2008 10:55 AM PST
Caroline Little, who heads up the Washington Post Company’s (NYSE: WPO) online division, has quit, Reuters reports, citing unidentified sources. Little was CEO and publisher of Washingtonpost.Newsweek Interactive, the company’s online division, which includes washingtonpost.com, as well as online magazine Slate.com and Newsweek.com. No reason for her departure was given and no replacement has been identified yet.
She joined WPNI in 1997 as general counsel and went on to serve as chief operating officer and president. Little became CEO and publisher in January 2004. Before to joining WPNI, Little was deputy general counsel at U.S. News & World Report, The Atlantic Monthly and Fast Company.
Staci adds: Little’s departure is effective immediately. I was told it was completely her decision and that she has been asked to do some work with WaPo corporate. WPNI vet Jennifer Moyer takes on day-to-day operations in her current role as COO of WPNI while decisions are made about a successor but there are changes in report structure. Moyer and Steve Stup will report to Christopher Ma at corporate while a search for a new CEO takes place; Ma reports to Don Graham.
On the editorial side, Jim Brady and Rob Curley will report to Katharine Weymouth, CEO of the recently created media group that includes the newspapers and online. As she said in a memo announcing the various moves: “I am taking this opportunity to move washingtonpost.com and The Washington Post closer to a true Washington Post Media organization – rather than a newspaper company and an Internet company.”
This continues the pattern established when Weymouth’s appointment was announced earlier this year: Washington Post matters go to Weymouth, while the broader businesses like Newsweek.com and Slate report up to corporate. Graham, Little and Weymouth met with WPNI staff early this afternoon.
Timing: While it was her decision to leave and efforts were made to get her to stay on, it’s also fair to say the appointment of Weymouth, a niece of Don Graham and a granddaughter of Kay Graham, set it in motion. Little stayed on for roughly two months after Weymouth’s early February appointment, which put a layer between her and Graham on WaPo. One person familiar with the situation said she wanted to give it time to see what the changes actually meant for her as CEO.
Disclosure: ContentNext Media, parent company of paidContent.org, has a syndication agreement with WashingtonPost.com.
Posted in: Companies, WaPo, Industry Moves, Media, Newspapers
Tags: caroline little,
