Ronning Named ShopNBC Chair

QVC Vet Joined Board in January

by Mike Farrell -- Multichannel News, 6/25/2009 6:25:05 PM

ShopNBC parent ValueVision Media named retailing veteran Randy Ronning chairman of the board at its annual meeting Thursday, succeeding John Buck, who has voluntarily stepped down.
Buck, who has been a member of the board since 2004 and stepped in as chairman in 2007, will remain on ShopNBC's board of directors.
Ronning joined ShopNBC's board in January after the home-shopping network pulled itself off the block.  Ronning is a 36-year veteran of the retailing industry and most recently served as executive vice president and chief merchandising officer where he oversaw all merchandising, brand management, and merchandise analysis efforts for QVC and QVC.com.
ShopNBC CEO Keith Stewart will retain his position and had high praise for Ronning.
"With his instrumental guidance, we have the right combination of industry expertise, leadership structure and experience to advance our strategies during this period of transition at our multi-channel electronic retailing business," Stewart said in a statement.
ShopNBC is available in about 73 million homes through cable and satellite affiliates.
ShopNBC, like other television shopping networks, has been hit hard by the recession. But the company said it was seeing some improvement -- in the first quarter, revenue declined 14% to $13.8 million but its operating loss was pared to $11.65 million, compared to $18.4 million in the same period in 2008. In a statement announcing its first-quarter results in May, Stewart said the company was beginning to make meaningful improvements to its fundamentals in a number of key areas.
"As a result of these operational improvements and efficiencies, positive business metrics continued to take form, which is highly encouraging," Stewart said in a statement in May.