Turns out that press-release explanation last week of IAC’s (NSDQ: IACI) management changes included more changes than we first reported for Peter Horan, president of IAC Media and Advertising. As part of what he describes as a “flattening” of the organization, Horan no longer manages Ask.com, CitySearch or FunWeb Products (FWP). Horan explained via e-mail: “We are trying to get away from ‘managers managing managers.’ Where this is most obvious is with our highly successful FWP operation (Zwinky, etc. in White Plains). John Park the GM previously reported to Scott Garrell who reported to me who reported to Doug Lebda who reported to Barry. Now Park reports to Barry. Delayering the company frees up a lot of talent. Doug is going to focus on getting Lending Tree and Real state.com ready to be spun out. Scott is partnering with Jim Safka on Ask.com.” Instead, Horan will focus on ad operations (Ad Solutions and Ask Sponsored Listings), distribution, Evite, Pronto, mobile and, he says, several new initiatives, which will be announced between now and the planned spin offs. He also says he’s looking forward to focusing on growing businesses more than managing.

More on Ask: As to why the changes happened at Ask.com, NYT’s Saul Hansell writes after speaking to sources: “The move reflects Mr. Diller’s belief that what Ask needs was better high profile advertising. Mr. Safka, indeed, is seen as more marketing oriented, while Mr. Lanzone was more interested in building Ask’s core search engine as well as creating flashy features that will differentiate it from that other very very very large search engine. He clashed with Mr. Diller, the IAC executives said, over how much to spend for engineers and servers. Mr. Diller, a former movie studio and television executive, often takes a personal hand in the marketing of his companies, from the design of their logos to the scripts of their commercials.”

• IAC Management Shuffle: Safka Tapped As Ask.com’s CEO; Lanzone Heads To Redpoint