ABC Sales Promotes Four Executives

Doug Hochstadt, David Mayber and Tom Watson today were promoted to senior vice presidents of ABC Sales, and Marco Forte has been promoted to vice president.

Hochstadt has been named SVP, planning and proposals, and Mayber has been named SVP/Central Division. Watson was named SVP/team leader.  Forte was named VP/primetime sales.

ABC Sales handles sales activities for ABC content on all distribution platforms, including the ABC Television Network, ABC.com, ABC News.com, Hulu and video on demand.  In addition, ABC Sales is responsible for cross-divisional efforts under the Disney/ABC Unlimited banner, which coordinates sales across all of the Walt Disney Co. media properties.

In his new role, Hochstadt will handle pricing for all dayparts, and planning responsibilities for the network. He will continue to report to Debbie Richman, SVP of primetime sales.

Mayber succeeds Michael Rubin, VP/general manager of the Central Sales Division.  Rubin is retiring after 40 years with ABC, effective January 2012. The Central Division, based in Chicago, covers 18 Midwestern and Southern states. In his new position, Mayber will report to Wang and will be responsible for all sales activities in the Central Division, where he will oversee 15 employees.

Watson will also report to Wang. He will head the sales team calling on OMD, PHD, and Horizon Media, and will direct all sales and negotiating activities on all of their accounts.

Forte will be the primary sales contact for the OMD agency and its 25 national advertisers, and will report to Watson.