By: E&P Staff John Martin, who was hired as the Sun-Times Media Group's (STMG) vice president of advertising to revive its slumping fortunes, has left the Chicago-based publisher, CEO Cyrus Freidheim said in a memo to employees.
He is being replaced immediately by two long-time executives at the publisher of the Chicago Sun-Times: Dean Spencer, who had been vice-president of advertising for corporate accounts, and Jack Metzger, who had been vice-president of advertising for new media. Martin is "leaving the company to pursue other interests," Freidheim said in the memo.
The shake-up was first reported on Crain's Chicago Business' Web site Friday afternoon by Ann Saphir.
Instead, ad revenue fell 10% in the first nine months of the year, to $214.9 million, Securities and Exchange Commission filings show.
During Martin's tenure, STMG's ad revenues continued to fall. Last month, Freidheim said the company would make its deepest cut in operating costs ever in the first six months of this year, chopping another $40 million out of the budget on top of $10 million in savings already realized by outsourcing circulation to the rival Chicago Tribune and consolidating some suburban Chicago papers. The company anticipates layoffs throughout its roughly 100 Chicago-area papers.
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