New Ziff Davis Enterprise CEO Steve Weitzner Announces Management Restructuring

NEW YORK, Jan. 14 /PRNewswire/ -- Steve Weitzner, newly named CEO and Chair of Ziff Davis Enterprise, today announced a reorganization of the integrated media and demand generation company's management structure.

Under the new structure, Ziff Davis Enterprise will reorganize around brand awareness, demand generation and deep customer engagement. Roughly speaking, these three product sets equate to print and online advertising; white papers, e-seminars/VTS and other methods; and live events, roundtables and summits.

Weitzner said, "Ziff Davis Enterprise will succeed by putting the audience at the center of everything we do and nurturing, growing and enhancing that audience. Our customers, whether consumers of our content or the marketers who want to do business with them, want us to integrate our solutions into a single, seamless offering and make it simple to access what they need without regard to the way we are organized. Our customers see us as one company.

"Our advantage in this fragmented market is that our customers are looking for partners who can help them with the bigger picture and with achieving their global objectives, rather than just another single source of leads, or banners or ad pages. To succeed in satisfying our customers and our audience, we need a new kind of management structure. I have therefore created three new positions, one being the first of its kind in the industry, and have been fortunate enough to fill them with three highly experienced, innovative industry pros."

Tom Rousseau will serve as the new President of Sales, responsible for delivering customer satisfaction and driving revenue. Tom, who has been with Ziff Davis Enterprise for four years, is very well known throughout the industry as one of the most positive and articulate sales professionals around. He has also worked at various times with IDG and CMP, where he has been a publisher, global sales director and served in a variety of other capacities connected with driving revenue. His understanding of what customers wants and how to help them do it is the model for creating superior customer satisfaction.

Jeff Smith will serve as Chief Audience Officer, the first CAO slot in the industry. The Chief Audience Officer will oversee every aspect of Ziff Davis Enterprise's audience database from recruitment, through technology development, usage policy and processes and beyond.

Smith said, "The function of the Chief Audience Officer is to drive acquisition, conversion, retention and monetization of leads over the entire network. My paramount goal is to ensure that Ziff Davis Enterprise continues to deliver the largest and best client base in the industry." Jeff joined the company in October as a consultant to tackle the challenges of audience delivery. Weitzner said, "I expect Jeff's leadership to help us establish and promote our audience, our practices and our results as a differentiating advantage across the industry."

Adam Taff, who came to Ziff Davis Enterprise as a consultant with Jeff Smith, will serve as the new Senior Vice President of Operations, driving execution on a broad front of business functions including audience, business development, daily operations and professional in-house training.

As a result of the reorganization, Martha Schwartz, former Senior Vice President of the Custom Solution Group, is leaving the company.

Barry Harrigan and Johanna Rivard of Web Buyer's Guide will now take on all of Ziff Davis Enterprise's various demand generation products, including eSeminars and white papers, while Jason Ratner will continue managing eSeminar sales, reporting directly to Tom Rousseau. These moves will enable the company to offer a wide range of demand generation products and services from one merged operation.

Bea Olivas will continue to lead the live event business, which will be sold by a dedicated team. Bea will also report to Rousseau.

Weitzner's management team will be rounded out by Eric Berk as CFO, John Caputo as COO/Online, Mike Vizard as SVP Editorial Director, Phil Kramer as SVP of Internet Sales and Marketing, Matt Merkin as Group Publisher, and Carine Roman as VP Finance and Online Operations.

About Ziff Davis Enterprise, Inc.

Ziff Davis Enterprise, Inc. is a global integrated marketing services and demand generation company that produces publications, online content, custom publishing, and events targeting the tech industry. Leading brands include Baseline, CIO Insight, eWEEK, baselinemag.com, cioinsight.com, eWEEK.com, Web Buyers Guide, the Developer Shed Network. Ziff Davis Enterprise has a global database of 4 million users representing an unparalleled community of business and technology professionals, developers, and the channel. www.ziffdavisenterprise.com.