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Lifetime President-CEO Steps Down

Apr 25, 2007  •  Post A Comment

Betty Cohen resigned Wednesday as president and CEO of Lifetime Entertainment Services after two years at the company.

Lifetime’s ratings and revenues were down last year, but Ms. Cohen on Tuesday introduced plans to increase spending on programming at Lifetime’s upfront presentation to advertisers. Following in the footsteps of popular CEO Carole Black, Ms. Cohen’s efforts to rebrand and reprogram the network started slowly at best.

“The past two years have been fantastic, but it’s time for me to take on new challenges. Having just shepherded the company through this year’s upfront presentation, with a fantastic slate of original programming that advertisers and media buyers responded to enthusiastically, I felt that the time was right for this transition,” Ms. Cohen said in a statement. “As for what the future holds for me, all I can say is, stay tuned.”

Lifetime is owned by Disney and Hearst.

“Saying goodbye to a trusted and admired colleague is never easy, but we respect Betty’s decision to move on at this time,” Anne Sweeney, co-chairman of Disney Media Networks and president of Disney-ABC Television Group, and John Conomikes, director of the Hearst Corp., said in a joint statement “We are very grateful for her dedication and contributions to Lifetime over the past two years, and wish her our best in all her future endeavors.”

(Editor: Horowitz)