New Chief Executive Looks To Steady Initiative’s Ship
Media
by Claudia Peschiutta
Initiative Media North America is getting a new chief executive who hopes to bring the L.A.-based media buyer back to its former prominence.
Alec Gerster, who had been CEO of Grey Global Group’s MediaCom, takes over later this month at Initiative Media Worldwide, a unit of The Interpublic Group of Companies. His job will include overseeing the U.S. operation.
Gerster replaces Lou Schultz, who retired earlier this year following a string of losses for Initiative, including the break up of a long-standing relationship with Walt Disney Co.
“It’s no secret that they’ve had some ups and downs but the real key here is there’s a great heritage here and some great assets,” Gerster said. He cited the company’s reputation and local media placement capabilities as some of its strengths.
Gerster believes the firm’s ability to buy media at low prices has overshadowed its strategic planning skills. “The strength that they’ve always had may be hurting them a little bit,” he said. “They haven’t gotten the recognition of being as strategic as some of the other companies.”
Gerster said he doesn’t plan to make any major management or staffing changes at Initiative Media.
A Second Chance
They lost the lottery but the potential jackpot has gotten bigger for two of L.A. top ad agencies.
The local offices of DDB Worldwide and Grey Worldwide have another chance to compete for the California Lottery account and, this time around, the work is worth $125 million.
Both agencies were disqualified from the lottery contest earlier this year for failing to provide required information in their bids. The problems were discovered during a review conducted after Grey contested DDB’s January win of the lottery account, then a four-year deal worth $100 million.
The lottery this month issued another request for proposals for the account, which has been increased to five years and $125 million, giving DDB and Grey another opportunity to play. Grey President and Chief Operating Officer John Crosson declined to comment. DDB President Rick Carpenter could not be reached.
Grey and DDB are welcome to bid for the account, said Jim Hasegawa, director of marketing for the lottery.
The account has been lengthened to five years to ensure “we get a top-notch agency at a competitive cost,” he said. Hasegawa expected all the agencies that submitted bids the first time around to take part in this round.
Finalists will be announced on May 30 and a decision is expected by the end of July.
Reporter’s Redesign
While the Wall Street Journal’s colorful new look made more of a splash, The Hollywood Reporter also debuted a new look last week.
An image of the trade publication peeking out from behind a red curtain on the cover announced the Reporter’s new, more colorful design and “easier-to-read” format.
The move also marked the creation of a new features division, which makes the Reporter’s separate special issues staff part of the editorial department, and the introduction of new columns.
Publisher and Editor-In-Chief Robert Dowling said the change would strengthen the Reporter’s feature coverage and complement the news updates available on the publication’s Web site and in its electronic edition.
“More and more information is going out electronically and we’re using space now more in the feature way to explain what the news is about,” he said.
New Look for KMEX
“Noticias 34” will have a more modern look starting April 15 as KMEX-TV (Channel 34) begins broadcasting out of its new digital facility at the Univision Communications Inc. headquarters.
Univision began moving its local operations into a new, five-story building at 5999 Center Drive, a little more than a block away from its old home in the Howard Hughes Center.
The new Univision building has three studios, several sets and a more modern newsroom. The KMEX news, production and operations departments moved in last week.
“It’s going to be definitely cutting-edge in terms of being able to retrieve the news much faster,” said station spokeswoman Patricia Ramos.
Staff reporter Claudia Peschiutta can be reached at (323) 549-5225 ext. 229 or at
[email protected].
Telemundo Stations In Play as Purchase By NBC Given Nod
Questions are again being raised about the fate of Telemundo Communications Group Inc.’s two Los Angeles stations after federal regulators approved NBC’s purchase of the Spanish-language network.
The Federal Communications Commission gave NBC the green light on the $2.7 billion deal, but it granted the network only one year to sell one of its three local stations.
NBC has agreed to divest itself of KWHY-TV (Channel 22) in order to comply with the FCC’s current regulations, which limit ownership to two stations per market. The 12-month waiver will buy NBC some time as the commission reviews its media ownership rules, which many in the industry hope will be relaxed in the near future. The network’s other two stations are KNBC-TV (Channel 4) and Telemundo’s KVEA-TV (Channel 54).
“A year is a long time,” said Rick Blangiardi, president of Telemundo Group Inc. “The laws will get changed.”
Court rulings have forced the commission to reconsider some of its restrictions, including the station ownership cap for small and mid-sized markets. But that doesn’t mean the FCC will allow the creation of triopolies.
“We don’t think they’re anything near close to relaxing the triopoly station rule. They just relaxed the duopoly station rule,” said David Miller, an analyst at Sanders Morris Harris Inc.
Meanwhile, Telemundo plans to announce this week that cable president Manuel Abud has been named vice president and general manager of KVEA and KWHY. Last week, Telemundo brought over anchorwoman Maria Celeste Arraras from rival Univision Communications Inc., owner of the nation’s No. 1 Spanish-language network.
Claudia Peschiutta
