Lifetime Staffs P.R. in L.A.

Lifetime Networks has added Lindsay Drewel and Les Eisner to the communications team that has shifted to Los Angeles from New York.

Drewel, as VP of publicity and talent relations, and Eisner, as VP of corporate communications, report to Josh Sabarra, senior VP of corporate communications and policy. Sabarra came to Lifetime last November from New Line Home Entertainment.

Drewel (pictured, left) had been president of her own Washington, D.C.-based public relations firm. Before that (2001-05) she worked at Lifetime, and even after that served the network as a consultant. For example, she developed and coordinated all of Lifetime's press activities at the 2008 presidential conventions.

She will oversee publicity efforts for all of Lifetime Networks' programming, including movies, series, awards campaigns and events. Her responsibilities also extend to managing the company's newly heightened talent relations efforts.

Eisner (pictured, right) had been executive vice president at The Lippin Group. He's charged with managing all corporate communications operations for the company, including strategically positioning Lifetime Networks' programming, distribution, ad sales, marketing, digital, research and advocacy activities within the trade and business media.

At Lippin, Eisner was a top executive, handling corporate communications strategies. Before that, he was a media relations VP at 20th Television and MyNetworkTV (2004-07), where he supervised the corporate communications and program publicity activities for all of 20th Television's first-run and off-network syndicated series.

Earlier, Lifetime hired Danielle Carrig as SVP of advocacy and public affairs and Amanda Crumley as VP of advocacy and public affairs, reporting to Meredith Wagner, Lifetime Networks' EVP of advocacy, public affairs and corporate communications.

Lifetime CEO Andrea Wong last year decided to move the publicity and public-affairs team to Los Angeles, partly to forge closer ties with the Hollywood talent community. Lifetime Networks includes Lifetime Television and Lifetime Movie Network.

Kent Gibbons

Kent has been a journalist, writer and editor at Multichannel News since 1994 and with Broadcasting+Cable since 2010. He is a good point of contact for anything editorial at the publications and for Nexttv.com. Before joining Multichannel News he had been a newspaper reporter with publications including The Washington Times, The Poughkeepsie (N.Y.) Journal and North County News.