Turner Ups Exec Trio; 18-Year Vet Lazarus Exits

In a management shakeup last week, Turner Broadcasting System promoted three of its top executives while a fourth, 18-year veteran Mark Lazarus, will exit the programming giant.

Ringing in the new year, Steve Koonin, David Levy and Stuart Snyder now are all president of Turner divisions, with expanded duties. Each will report directly to Turner chairman and CEO Phil Kent.

Previously, the trio reported to Lazarus, who is leaving his post as president of Turner Entertainment Group. In the reshuffling, the parent company, Turner Broadcasting System, appeared to be acting to eliminate a management layer. Lazarus has been with Turner since 1990.

“For some time now, Mark and I have been talking about the future structure of the company,” Kent said in a e-mail message to staff last week. “In the new structure that I have decided upon, there was not a role of scale that Mark was interested in. There are a great many options available to someone with Mark’s accomplishments and reputation.”

Overall, Kent said he was looking “to align” and centralize business functions supporting Turner’s Entertainment and Animation, Young Adults and Kids Media groups.

Lazarus joined Turner as a sports account executive and for the past five years has served as president of the entertainment group.

“Leading and managing a group of people and a portfolio of businesses, we have achieved innovative success in the sports, entertainment and kids arenas for both television and the digital market,” he said in a prepared statement.

During a brief interview, Lazarus said he will look at a broad array of opportunities, from TV to sports to digital and beyond.

“I have a lot of experience building businesses,” he said, having managed a large collection of assets. “My specialty is finding marketplace gaps.”

With the reorganization Koonin, as president of Turner Entertainment Networks, is now responsible for not only programming, marketing, scheduling, strategy and operations for TBS, TNT, Turner Classic Movies and truTV, but also advertising sales and marketing for those properties. Peachtree TV — the relaunched Atlanta broadcast-TV station that used to simulcast TBS — was also put under his wing.

Levy, formerly president of Turner Entertainment Ad Sales and Marketing, was named president of Turner Broadcasting Sales. He will also continue to oversee ad sales for sports and entertainment digital businesses, and remains president of Turner Sports.

Snyder was promoted and named president and chief operating officer of Turner Animation, Young Adults and Kids Media.