Some time around late summer last year, about six months after we moved into our (first-ever) office in Santa Monica, I realized we needed to start asking the “BIG S” question for our growing B2B media company: How Do You Scale?

As we keep defining the new models in B2B publishing, the “how” part is what we’re in the process of building out. More when we actually do it—no point talking about vaporware. What we’re announcing today are two new senior executives and a new board member who will help us build.

More in extended…

-- Nathan Richardson, Chief Executive Officer: I am stepping out of my position as CEO (something I was never comfortable with, as people who know me can attest...I always liked the Editor and Publisher title better); but will keep the role of Chairman. We are very pleased to have chanced upon a perfect fit: Nathan Richardson is the new CEO of ContentNext Media. He is also joining our board. He will lead the company in the next phase of platform growth, including going deeper and wider into the sectors we cover.

Nathan was most recently the head of Dow Jones (NYSE: NWS) Online, a brand that includes WSJ.com, Marketwatch and Barrons. He joined Dow Jones in 2005 after spending three years as head of the biggest finance site online, Yahoo (NSDQ: YHOO) Finance. While at Yahoo, Institutional Investor named Nathan the #1 Executive in Online Finance, the “impresario” of the finance space. Since leaving DJ Online in 2006, Nathan had been on sabbatical to serve as the Country Director of the International Rescue Committee’s operations in Liberia. He also works with several non-profits and sits on the board of PlayNetworks. In his early career, Nathan worked at Citibank in Emerging Markets, and spent time in the Peace Corps. He graduated from Babson College and Georgetown University. You can contact Nathan at nrichardson AT contentnext.com

-- Patrick Dignan, Chief Sales Officer: This is a new position at our company. Patrick Dignan is joining our executive team as the head of all our sales efforts, after a 20-year career in publishing sales. He will lead our growing sales team, define our go-to-market sales strategy, and develop a market relationship with clients and agencies. He was most recently with Forbes.com, where among other positions he had been the director of East Coast sales for the business website. Previously, he was the publisher of Family PC and Saveur magazines and advertising director for Philly.com. Pat received his B.S. from Boston College. You can contact Patrick at pdignan AT contentnext.com.

-- Charlie Koones, our new board member: At the same time, we are expanding our already-strong board to bring on key expertise in the entertainment media sector. Charlie Koones is joining our board...till recently he was the president and publisher of Variety, and left in January, after spending 17 years within the Variety/Reed Business family. Koones was a primary architect of Variety’s digital growth. Since its launch nine years ago, Variety.com has enjoyed major gains in advertising and page views. I have known Charlie for a while now, and have admired his multi-platform approach and expertise in building an iconic brand such as Variety. He will help us build out our digital entertainment trade media business. He joins Nathan, Alan Patricof, Larry Kramer and myself on our Board. He is based in Los Angeles.

Then, we’re also announcing a senior promotion: Staci D. Kramer, my partner in crime, and the first journalist I hired back in late 2004, is now the Co-Editor and EVP of the company. She was previously the Executive Editor. She has certainly been the standard everyone defines business journalists by, and has been the moral compass in our company and helped us stay on the right path despite the temptations.

We’d like to thank Jordan Posell, our COO for the past year, who has moved to TotalBeauty as CFO.

Both Nathan and Pat will be based in New York City, and yes, that means we are opening a formal office there, besides Santa Monica...we are, in fact, looking at small sub-leases in Manhattan (mid or downtown) so if you know of any space, let us know. We already have two journalists based there—David Kaplan, our senior correspondent, and Joseph Weisenthal, our financial reporter—and will be hiring more.

So there you have it...we’re trying to keep our heads down and will keep building. It goes back to the original vision I defined in 2004, when the blog I started in 2002 turned into a professional company: “Our belief is that in the near future, all media will be digital media, and we are helping define sustainable business models and innovation within this sector.” That applies to our editorial coverage as much as our own business build-out. As to what exactly we’ll do, we’ll keep that on the inside for now. Keep guessing…