Meredith Kopit Levien

Meredith Kopit Levien (born 1971) is an American media executive, Chief Revenue Officer of The New York Times Company, and an advocate of native advertising.^[1]

Biography

Levien was born Meredith Kopit and raised in metropolitan Richmond, Virginia.^[1] She graduated from the University of Virginia^[2] where she majored in rhetoric and worked at the college newspaper, The Cavalier Daily.^[3] After school, she worked at The Advisory Board Company, a think tank founded by David G. Bradley and then for the digital agency i33/AppNet. After Bradley bought Atlantic Media (publisher of The Atlantic magazine), he rehired her in 2003, and she sold advertising eventually working her way up to associate publisher.^[3]

In April 2008, she joined Forbes Media where she ran the Forbes Life Magazine. After stemming losses at the magazine by ending the print edition to focus on the digital side of the magazine, C.E.O. Tim Forbes appointed her group publisher. She also introduced programmatic buying (where the purchase of advertisements are done through online media) and "Brandvoice" which allows advertisers to create their own content under the Forbes logo. This new method of advertising, denominated as native advertising, has been criticized for blurring the line between editorial and advertising. In 2012, she was named Chief Revenue Officer at Forbes Media.^[3]

In July 2013, she was appointed Executive Vice President at The New York Times Company by C.E.O. Mark Thompson. Levien refocused The New York Times toward digital content and sales, hiring 80 new employees with internet skills and offered severance packages to 40 older employees. She again introduced native advertising under the name "Paid Posts" (where New York Times writers write advertisements in conjunction with customers in the same writing style and format as New York Times news articles) to increase advertising revenue; working with Netflix, Chevron, Dell, MetLife, and others.^[1]

In April 2015, she was elevated to Chief Revenue Officer of the New York Times in charge of all advertising both print and digital.^[4][5] Levien was brought in to help to stem the decline in advertising revenues (which had declined from a peak of $1.3 billion in 2000 to $667 million in 2013). Levien has said that video is the next big step for newspapers and has worked to include more video content.^[1]

Levin and the New York Times have been sued twice for discrimination because she allegedly fired a woman who complained a male supervisor was sexually harassing her and because she allegedly purged older employees of color and replaced them with younger whites.^[6]

Personal life

Levien married Jason Levien, former CEO of the NBA's Memphis Grizzlies and current CEO of MLS' D.C. United;^[3] they have one child.^[7] She lives in New York City.^[8]

References