Nickelodeon shuffles exec deck
Kids net rebuilds biz ops on pillar principle
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Cyma Zarghami, president of Nickelodeon and head of the newly formed MTVN Kids and Family Group, said three Nick execs will receive promotions in the reshuffling: Tom Ascheim, to the new post of exec veep and general manager of Nickelodeon TV; Steve Youngwood to exec VP of digital media, another new post; and Sarah Kirshbaum Levy to exec veepee of strategy and business operations, also a new job.
Left out in the Wednesday announcement is Jeff Dunn, the longstanding chief operating officer of the Nickelodeon Networks Group and president of film and enterprises, who has ankled.
In a statement, Nick lauded Dunn's contributions to the company. But when Herb Scannell resigned as prexy of Nickelodeon Networks last month, Dunn, a loyal Scannell lieutenant, began re-evaluating his own status. His titles will disappear from the company's flow chart.
The 16-year veteran Ascheim emerges as the exec whom Zarghami calls "my partner" in running all of the programming, production and marketing for Nickelodeon/Nick at Nite and its cable TV-network spinoffs: Noggin/the N, Nicktoons and Nick Games & Sports.
These nets "are still the biggest revenue generators for the company," said Zarghami. "They still take the biggest seat at the table."
But she plans to push the development of new Nick programs on other platforms, from theatrical movies to the TurboNick Web site to videogames. Zarghami cites the forthcoming Paramount-distributed Christmas theatrical release "Barnyard the Movie," which Nick is so high on it has already commissioned a 13-episode half-hour animated series for scheduling in fall 2007. (A previous theatrical original, "Jimmy Neutron," also started as a movie before being turned into a successful animated Nick series.)
Under Youngwood's leadership, Nick is also preparing to create a half-hour series out of its first hit videogame property, "Tak." In addition, videostores stock DVDs of the Nick hit series "SpongeBob SquarePants" and "Dora the Explorer," and the company publishes CDs on its Nick Records label.
In a panel session Wednesday at an all-day media conference in New York, Michael Wolf, prexy-COO of MTV Networks, said MTV and Nickelodeon are using their international franchises to "experiment with mobile video content," which will eventually be imported into the U.S.
Ascheim oversaw the growth of all of Nick's multiplex channels, particularly Noggin/the N, which now reaches 45 million cable and satellite households.
Youngwood will take over day-to-day management of all six Nick Web sites and oversee such Nick initiatives as wireless, gaming, interactive TV and digital video.
As senior VP of strategy and business development for Nickelodeon, Levy had worked on Nick's purchases of Neopets and GoCityKids.com and helped to build up the Noggin brand.
