Meredith Names Jon Werther Chief Strategy Officer

Meredith Corp. announced today that Jon Werther has been named chief strategy officer. In this role, Werther, 43, will work with Meredith’s senior management team on evolving corporate and business unit strategies, sourcing and evaluating new strategic opportunities, and leading key strategic initiatives. He will start his new duties on April 30, and report directly to Meredith Chairman-CEO Stephen M. Lacy.

After beginning his career as a transactional attorney, Werther spent more than 10 years in positions of increasing scale and responsibility at Time Warner and its AOL division. From 1999 to 2005, Werner negotiated and closed a variety of strategic partnerships and led cross-company initiatives which helped spearhead AOL’s shift to a Web-focused strategy. 

He then joined Time Warner as VP, operations, where he served on an executive team responsible for both shaping and implementing a company-wide digital distribution strategy, and improving corporate department and portfolio business operating performance. Werther rejoined AOL in 2007 as EVP, business development, and later was named EVP, integrated operations.

Most recently, Werther was  president of Simulmedia, an audience-targeted television ad network. He played leadership roles in helping the company advance beyond its pre-revenue stage; build a local and national television advertising network reaching more than 100 million multichannel U.S. households; amass industry-leading levels of set-top box and other data; and execute more than 100 successful advertising campaigns for national brand advertisers and their media agencies.

Werther earned an MBA from the Wharton School of Business at the University of Pennsylvania; a law degree from George Washington University; and an undergraduate degree from Emory University.