New CEO for magazine media group
MPA, the Association of Magazine Media, New York, tapped Mary G. Berner as its new CEO, effective Sept. 17. She will succeed Nina Link, who is stepping down, but will remain an adviser through the end of the year.
Most recently, Berner was CEO of the Reader’s Digest Association, and a member of the company’s board from 2007 to 2011. Under her direction, the company launched 83 websites, and 31 mobile applications; Allrecipes.com expanded into 22 countries, making it the world’s largest food website; and Reader’s Digest Magazine became Kindle’s best-selling monthly magazine.
Berner also led the successful reorganization of the company's acquisition- related debt, after which she and her team presided over the doubling of the company's stock price.
Berner began her career selling advertising for a neighborhood newspaper in Boston. At the age of 29, she was hired to oversee the advertising and marketing department of TV Guide. She left five years later in 1995 to join Glamour Magazine as publisher. When Condé Nast bought Fairchild Publications in 1999, Berner was appointed CEO. During her tenure at Fairchild, she was named Advertising Age’s 2004 Publishing Executive of the Year, and was inducted into the MIN Sales Executive Hall of Fame in 2006.
Berner has served on not-for-profit boards, including MPA and Advertising Women of New York. She currently is lead director for Success Academies Charter Schools in New York.
Blinkhorn LLC assisted in the search. Details: www.magazine.org.
