Hire Wire Dec 02 2011

New CMO at Reader's Digest

By damian ghigliotty

Reader's Digest North America President Dan Lagani named the company's international digital strategy leader, Renee Jordan, 49, as its new chief marketing officer.

Her appointment marks a new approach at RDNA to promote from within, Lagani said. "Whenever you can access a strong talent pool internally, you're better off doing that," said Lagani, 48, who joined Reader's Digest as executive vice president in May 2010 and became president in June 2011.

"The first part of our new business strategy has been to clarify to our employees the purpose and reason for being at Reader's Digest, an incredibly reputable brand that had lost its focus. The second step has been to turn that business around."

Jordan, who joined Reader's Digest in September 2001, has taken on several roles over the past 10 years, including consumer marketing, operations and digital product development. Her new responsibilities are to accelerate consumer marketing and promotions across all platforms.

Her appointment is the final step in an ongoing process to revamp the publisher. In October, Everyday With Rachel Ray's editor-in-chief, Liz Vaccariello, 44, took over as chief content officer and editor-in-chief of Reader's Digest's flagship magazine, as well as its digital properties, after the magazine was sold to Meredith Corp.

Last summer, Mark Josephson, 49, Reader Digest's former vice president of sales, was promoted to chief sales officer after joining the company from Better Homes and Gardens in November 2010. Jacqui Lachman, 45, the magazine's former vice president of marketing and brand development, became chief strategy officer after joining RDNA from a media consulting job in June 2010.

The magazine has begun to see the kind of gains sought by Lagani. Reader's Digest has seen a 17% increase in ad pages this year and has become the top-selling publication on the Amazon Kindle, according to Amazon.

Write to Damian Ghigliotty at Damian.Ghigliotty@dowjones.com