Instead of having a publisher for each of its 10 individual titles, Rogers Media has streamlined to having four group publishers for its consumer magazines.

Penny Hicks, who was publisher of Maclean’s, is now the group publisher for women’s service magazines—Today’s Parent, Chatelaine and Canadian Health & Lifestyle. Meanwhile, Flare publisher Melissa Ahlstrand is expanding her role to become the group publisher of the fashion and beauty titles, which include Hello! Canada, Flare and Cosmetics.

Rogers will announce a new publisher for current affairs, who will handle Maclean’s and Sportsnet, as well as a publisher for its French-language magazines, Châtelaine and LouLou, in the coming months.

"It's important to evolve our business model in order to remain competitive," said Steve Maich, senior vice-president and general manager of publishing at Rogers Media, in an emailed statement to J-Source. "The group publishing model allows us to take advantage of editorial and advertising synergies in each group, as we adapt to the rapidly changing media environment. Our focus remains on building our leading brands and making our content available to Canadians across all platforms."

It’s a move that mimics the consolidation of publishers at Postmedia Network last year. The company eliminated the role of publishers at its 10 daily newspapers and replaced them with three vice-presidents who share the publishing duties regionally for eastern Canada, western Canada and the Prairies.

Louise Leger, communications manager at Rogers Media, told J-Source that the changes will not affect L’Actualité publisher Carole Beaulieu or its business publishers, such as Ian Portsmouth, who will remain as publisher of Canadian Business, and Sandra Parente at MoneySense.

For more on how this development affects other key personnel at Rogers, visit J-Source.ca where this article was originally published.