Lucas Makes Marketing Discovery
Weather Channel Executive Named Content Company’s CMO
By Multi Channel News Staff -- Multichannel News, 2/5/2008 2:41:00 AM
Discovery Communications has hired Wonya Lucas as its chief marketing officer.
She joins Discovery from The Weather Channel Cos. and will be based at the company’s global headquarters i
n Silver Spring, Md. Reporting to COO Mark Hollinger, Lucas starts her new job March 24.
As Discovery’s CMO,Lucas, who had been serving as general manager, executive vice president at Weather, will provide company-wide brand strategy leadership and coordination across Discovery’s global businesses. She will be charged with strengthening Discovery's world-class brands and leveraging the company's assets to increase awareness and expand its worldwide viewer base.
Lucas, at weather, had oversight for corporate strategy and development, strategic marketing for The Weather Channel and weather.com, and operations and programming The Weather Channel, The Weather Channel HD, Weatherscan, The Weather Channel Radio Network, and newspaper syndication.
Before joining The Weather Channel in 2002 as executive vice president of marketing, Lucas was with the Turner Broadcasting System where she held several positions, including senior vice president of strategic marketing for CNN Networks and vice president of business operations and network development for TBS, TNT, Turner Classic Movies and Turner South.
“Wonya is a recognized leader in the media industry after successfully overseeing marketing and strategy for major television and internet brands at both The Weather Channel and Turner Broadcasting,” said Hollinger in a statement. “I am extremely proud to welcome someone with her talent, strategic and operational experience and industry stature as the new driving force behind Discovery’s global marketing and branding strategy.”
Noted Lucas: “Discovery Communications has built an impressive portfolio of recognized, trusted and admired brands over the past 23 years. I look forward to working with the executive and marketing teams to continue to build brand momentum and audience share for all of Discovery’s global brands.”
Landmark Communications, parent of The Weather Channel, is in the middle of a strategic review and has hired two investment bankers to evaluate its options, including a possible breakup of the company. Landmark has retained investment banker JP Morgan Chase to advise it on The Weather Channel sale. For its part, Lehman Bros. is advising Landmark on the sale of its other media properties, including newspapers The Virginia Pilot in Norfolk, The News & Record in Greensboro, N.C., The Roanoke Times in Roanoke, Va.; 50 other small commun ity newspapers and a handful of television stations.
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