Jim Docherty, president of Hachette Filipacchi Magazines's new media division, confirmed to ZDNN that he had left the French publisher, which owns magazines including Elle, Car & Driver and George. Docherty had been at Hachette for nearly 11 years and September would have marked his third anniversary as president of the new media division.
The move follows the April ouster of Daniel Okrent from Time New Media as part of a reorganization of Time Warner's Web strategy. But Time Warner's Pathfinder site had struggled to find profits, despite being among the 10 most trafficked sites on the Web. Hachette new media, meanwhile, was profitable, thanks to advertising and significant revenue from content licensing deals with America Online Inc. (NYSE:AOL) and other sites.
Disgreement on strategy
Docherty, reached at his home, said he had left the company after a disagreement on strategy with Hachette's new CEO, Jack Kliger.
"He's got perhaps a different vision for new media than what we've been running under for the last three years. I don't know that he values new media as a stand-alone property," Docherty said. "Instead of a stand-alone profit center, Jack is going to want to use it to leverage the magazines."
Docherty added that "Jack has a very powerful initiative now for Hachette that has to do with circulation. I think that some of what happens with those sites now will also be to use this division as support for the magazines."
Docherty said he had plans, but would not announce them yet.
A Hachette spokesman declined to comment, saying only that Hachette expects to name a successor to Docherty within a week, and that the new media division will be left intact.
A source close to Hachette said that Docherty's resignation indicates the uneasy relationship that exists between new media groups and traditional magazines at the major media companies.
"It's the inevitable result of having two power centers at these companies," said the source, who asked not to be named. "The publishers have a lot of jealousy and resentment. They look at the online group and say, 'These guys are taking my brand and making money off of it.' Even though they don't know anything about new media, they think it's something that's part of their brand."
