Time Inc. centralizes digital video business

Time Inc. has consolidated its video production activities into a new unit tasked with developing more online video related to its magazine titles at a higher quality. The move includes the appointment of J.R. McCabe into the new role of senior VP of video. McCabe joined Time after a stint as VP-chief video officer at Meredith Corp.

Time Inc. CEO Laura Lang
Image source: Time Inc.

The new plan is to make Time's print content into online video for an audience that is moving away from reading.

"It's an important strategic focus for the company as consumers increasingly seek web video as a format to inform, entertain and share among their friends," Time CEO Laura Lang wrote in a memo to employees covered by Advertising Age.

According to the memo, the goal is to help the company's magazine brands, People, Fortune, Sports Illustrated, Time and InStyle, among others, "play an important role in that experience."

The move will affect about 20 employees who have been working in video production across those brands.

"We also believe video provides an opportunity to engage with advertisers in creative new ways that fulfill a current demand from the ad marketplace," Lang's memo continued.

Advertising, of course, is at the foundation of any such move, and Time has put its advertising ducks in order already with a new digital ad unit that "pairs its magazines' content with marketers' messages," the Advertising Age story said.

The increased emphasis on digital is no surprise coming from Lang, who joined the company in January after working with Digitas.

For more:
- Advertising Age reported this story

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