'MCN’ Hires Vernadakis; Promotes Donohue

New York— George Vernadakis has been named senior editor of features and supplements at Multichannel News, responsible for coverage of important shifts affecting the programming and operation of multichannel video services.

He begins today.

“George is himself a hidden talent among journalists knowledgeable and effective in covering tectonic change in media and technology,” Multichannel News editor-in-chief Tom Steinert-Threlkeld said. “And our readers will benefit from all sorts of small and big changes that George will bring, step by step, to the pages of Multichannel News, in print and online.’’

Also, Multichannel News’s Internet editor, Steve Donohue, has been named to the additional post of editor of the daily electronic publication Multichannel Newsday, Steinert-Threlkeld said.

“Steve is an unusual guy,” Steinert-Threlkeld. “Unusually talented at spotting individuals, companies and events that today or tomorrow will make a difference in how visual content is delivered and consumed. And he has the ability to express how that difference will be made, in an instant.’’

Vernadakis comes to Multichannel News with lengthy experience in both print and online journalism. Most recently, he was responsible for the overall editorial direction of a leading food, fitness and weight-loss Web site, Weightwatchers.com. Before that, he was executive editor of Ziff Davis Internet, the online operation of technology magazine publisher Ziff Davis Media.

In print, Vernadakis spent 1990 to 1993 as assistant managing editor of Variety, now a sister publication of Multichannel News within Reed Business Information. He served subsequently as managing editor of the satire magazine Spy and as editor of the first newspaper about the Internet, Interactive Week. Vernadakis was one of three principal editors of Interactive Week in the second half of the ’90s, along with Steinert-Threlkeld, who was editor in chief.

Donohue is a former editor of CableFax Daily, the daily facsimile product published by Access Intelligence LLC. He also served as Multichannel Newsday editor from spring 2002 to fall 2003.

His challenge will be to make a daily electronic product from Multichannel News an engaging, must-read in the cable television and multichannel video programming industry.

“It’s a tall order in a highly competitive field,” Steinert-Threlkeld said. “But Steve’s smart, energetic and up to the task.”