London, April 16^th 2008 -CondéNet International – the online arm of Condé Nast International - is delighted to announce a raft of new appointments, delivering a company-wide internal re-structure and boosting operations internally. This new reinvigorated focus on Internet activities, which is simultaneously replicated in each of its nine markets, perfectly positions the company to succeed in building a highly profitable global business capitalising on the most appropriate technology available, while delivering the highest quality of content. The personnel selected for the key roles across both the international and local level means that CondéNet International has several decades of cumulative diverse experience in the Internet business, a perfect mix with the strong editorial Condé Nast tradition to forge a winning culture.

 The global strategy for CondéNet International is being driven by some of the best talents in the business at the CondéNet International Head Office, with both commercial and technical backgrounds. The company is led by Stefano Maruzzi, President of CondéNet International, who spent over seven years at Microsoft as an executive in the online division. Stefano Maruzzi started some months ago to recruit top talents in different geographies to create the internal leadership organisation at CondéNet International. “Starting new businesses is not unfamiliar to me, but the main challenge on this occasion was represented by our ability to attract top players in the Internet industry knowing CondéNet International sites were seen as more niche than the larger portals. The key was to emphasise the challenge and the potential represented by combining original content production and technology” comments Stefano Maruzzi. “My primary objective was to identify eclectic, passionate, competent, and highly motivated talents with a previous experience in a multinational environment. And so far I’m delighted by the calibre of hires and the people we have signed”.

 At local level, CondéNet has already capitalised on the best editorial and commercial talents in the business in recent years, while recently concentrating on investing in attracting Internet experts from across the industry. The CondéNet UK sales team for example won the recent AOP Sales Team of the Year Award 2007, while Dolly Jones was awarded BSME Magazine Website Editor of the Year 2006 for VOGUE.COM. And today we announce a new Country Manager to lead CondéNet UK, Emanuela Pignataro (details below).   This merger of the existing editorial culture of CondéNet together with an injection of high calibre Internet orientated personnel will ensure the business reaches its full potential moving forwards enabling us to capitalise on the great diversity of strengths we have to draw on.   

Locally, the structure will follow the blueprint of a Country Manager at the head of each business who will report directly to the CondéNet International President, Stefano Maruzzi. All local functions, content development, product development, sales and marketing, report solid line into the local Country Manager. This new organisation represents a big departure from the typical Condé Nast presence in markets, but has been explicitly designed to accelerate the growth of the Internet business, and to strengthen the Web culture inside the company. 

In addition, at the CondéNet headquarters in London, there are a number of international functions that will report into the CondéNet International President, such as Marketing, Audience Development, Technology, and Finance. The combination of these reports and all Country Managers form the CondéNet International Leadership team, the governing body of the entire Internet business unit at Condé Nast International. 

This internal restructure will ensure complete synergy with our print brands, presenting solutions to the increasing demands for cross media advertising solutions, with our online commercial team working with the relevant print brand sales team to meet advertisers’ objectives.