Wenner Media has appointed KerryAnn Brennan advertising services director, working with Rolling Stone, Us Weekly and Men's Journal. She was previously ad services manager at Us Weekly.
Susan L. Taylor, the Essence publications director who had been with the publication for 37 years, has left the magazine. Taylor is stepping down in order to spend more time working with the organization she founded to help troubled children. Taylor joined the magazine upon its launch in 1970, rose to editor in chief in 1981, and became publications director in 2000.
Broadcast holding company Local TV has named Bobby Lawrence chief executive officer, succeeding Randy Michaels, who is moving to Tribune Company. Lawrence was previously president and chief operating officer.
Tomorrow Iowans will caucus to officially kick off what’s already been a long presidential election 2008 run-up, and candidates are scrambling to make their final appeal to voters. Thus it’s no surprise that Jay Leno will be talking to Republican presidential candidate and Iowa frontrunner Mike Huckabee on "The Tonight Show" this evening. It's Leno’s first night back on the air since the writers’ strike started in November.
Roselyn Sanchez, of CBS' "Without a Trace," got engaged during a holiday vacation to fellow actor Eric Winter. The two have been dating for two years and have not set a date or location for their wedding.
Former "Married with Children" star David Faustino's divorce from Andrea Elmer Faustino was finalized on Friday. The two had been married for three years and separated in May of last year. They dated for five years before getting hitched in 2004.
Terry Armour, columnist for the Chicago Tribune, died Friday of an apparent heart attack at the age of 46. Armour covered sports and entertainment, joining the Tribune in 1980.
Initiative USA, whose clients include AOL, Bayer, CBS and Showtime, has hired Kris Magel as senior vice president and director of national broadcast, where he will supervise all national television negotiations. Magel had been at Zenith Media. Meanwhile, Scott Haugenes, currently senior vice president and group director of national broadcast, is leaving Initiative to join VOD network RipeTV.
Good Health Advertising, which launched in April 2007, has hired Todd Kapner as national sales director, Denis Amo as senior vice president of publishing and business development, David McClain as national account executive and Rebecca Bishop as senior account director.
Experiential marketing agency Power Marketing Partners has named Vincent Framularo account executive. Framularo joins from FramBaM Consulting.
Independent media services agency Horizon Media made a number of new hires at the end of the year. In its New York office, Alyse LaRue is now assistant account executive, Madeline Autiero is media planner, Ashley Dudas is planning supervisor, Bernard Shepard is director of credit and collections in the finance group, Arlene Warner is senior accountant, Ashley Claro is assistant account executive and Michael Consani is CORE specialist in the direct response group. In the Los Angeles office, Michael Tang has been hired as help desk administrator.
NBC Agency East Coast made a number of promotions and hires at the end of the year. Bill Platt is now senior writer-producer; Jon Accarrino is manager of digital marketing; Adam Kessler is director of on-air promotion; Skip Stuart is executive producer and senior director for special projects; Chris Meador has been named senior director of brand strategy; Val Nicholas, who will also remain creative director at MSNBC, has also been named vice president of business development; and Doug Lipsius has risen to vice president of operations.
Philip B. Dusenberry, an advertising executive with BBDO, died Saturday at the age of 71 after year-long treatment for lung cancer. Dusenberry is best known for masterminding the 1980s Pepsi commercial in which Michael Jackson's hair was set on fire and was part of the agency that coined taglines like "We bring good things to life" for General Electric and "It's everywhere you want to be" for Visa.
