Media: Rosenblatt exits Demand Media; Int'l NY Times launches; Vandehei tapped at Politico, Capital NY

ROSENBLATT EXITS DEMAND MEDIA

CEO and co-founder of Demand Media Richard Rosenblatt will resign the helm of the content provider effective Oct. 31.

Co-founder Shawn Colo will take the interim CEO slot, while James Quandt moves to the chairman post.

A search is underway for a permanent CEO.

Demand, which launched in 2006, relies on freelancers to produce written and video material.

Google’s decision to change its search algorithm to eliminate low-grade content has hurt Demand’s performance.

Colo said he’s been involved in all facets of the business and remains bullish about Demand’s business model.

Prior to Demand, he was principal at Spectrum Equity Investors, a $4 billion private equity firm.

Demand is based in Santa Monica.

INTERNATIONAL NYT LAUNCHES

The International New York Times officially launched Oct. 15 with a letter from publisher Arthur Sulzberger on the front page that promised to maintain the tradition of journalistic excellence and innovation of the predecessor paper International Herald Tribune.

The IHT will be a “news report tailored specifically for the valued members of our global audience,” he wrote.

The idea is to create “a single, unified global media brand, which will allow us to expand our digital hubs, grow our editorial team, add more international voices in news and opinion, and increase the coverage provided by some of our best writers from around the globe.”

Sulzberger noted that the NYT only few decades was a “respected but metropolitan paper” that transformed itself into a national newspaper.

He wants the IHT to follow that path on a global basis because the “need for high-quality, authoritative, on-the-ground reporting and analysis from around the world has never been greater.”

VANDEHEI TAPPED AT POLITICO, CAPITAL NEW YORK

Politico co-founder and executive editor Jim VandeHei will succeed Fred Ryan as CEO and chief Capital New York.

Allbritton Communications CEO Robert Allbritton said the parent company is giving VanderHei “a big new portfolio and mission” of running the business and developing new ventures.

He said VanderHei started as editor and has “grown into a strategic business thinker who just happens to have journalistic instincts.”

Albritton noted that Vanderhei and Politico editor-in-chief John Harris “share my vision for creating a first-class business and editorial culture and taking calculated risks during this period of upheaval and opportunity.”