Media Moves

The New York Times’ chief book critic, Michiko Kakutani, stepped down after a 38-year career at the paper, a change that many observers say will change the shape of the publishing industry. Referred to as a “one-woman kamikaze” by Norman Mailer, Kakutani was known as much for her enthusiasm toward the works she championed as she was for her often sharp jabs at works that did not meet her standards. She started at the Times in 1979 as a cultural reporter, becoming a book critic in 1983. She won the Pulitzer Prize for criticism in 1998. The Times announced Thursday that Parul Sehgal, a senior editor and columnist at its Book Review, would join Dwight Garner and Jennifer Senior as one of the paper’s book critics.

Hulu appointed Kelly Campbell as chief marketing officer. Currently, head of global growth marketing for Google Cloud, Campbell’s remit at Hulu will be to drive the company’s overall marketing strategy across both its subscription VOD business and new Live TV service. She will oversee brand marketing, performance marketing, media, content marketing, creative, entertainment publicity and consumer research teams. Campbell’s hiring comes on the heels of Hulu bringing on AMC and Sundance TV president Joel Stillerman as its chief content officer in May. As of May, Hulu says it has 47 million unique viewers.

Consumer health site HealthGuru.com is partnering with The Monday Campaigns, a non-profit public health initiative associated with Johns Hopkins, Columbia and Syracuse universities. The initiative is based on research conducted by Johns Hopkins that shows that people are more likely to start diets and exercise regimes, quit smoking and schedule doctor’s appointments on Monday than any other day. Monday Campaign initiatives, which will appear on the home page of HealthGuru.com every Monday morning, will feature a revolving set of informational videos and text on such topics as Healthy Monday, Meatless Monday and Move It Monday.