Condé Nast CEO Bob Sauerberg to exit amid restructuring

Bob Sauerberg will be departing as CEO of Condé Nast, which has launched a search for a new chief exec to run the company as a merged U.S. and international media entity.

The company, whose media brands include Vanity Fair, Wired, GQ, and the New Yorker, said it will combine its U.S.-based businesses with Condé Nast International. The news was announced in a memo to Condé Nast staff from board members Jonathan Newhouse and Steve Newhouse.

“What has become clear is that our aspirations are no longer best served by our historical structure of running two separate companies,” Jonathan Newhouse and Steve Newhouse wrote. “We have concluded that the time is right for us to combine our U.S. and international companies to realize the full potential of Condé Nast for our audiences and our business partners.”

Sauerberg will continue as CEO of Condé Nast U.S. until the new global chief executive is on board, and then “will leave to pursue other opportunities,” including his representation of Advance (Condé Nast’s parent company) on the board of Reddit, in which Advance holds a minority stake.

Sauerberg joined the company in 2005 as executive VP. Previously he held senior leadership roles at Fairchild Fashion Media, including COO and CFO, and spent 18 years with the New York Times Co., eventually rising to CFO of its magazine group.

Sauerberg “helped steer Condé Nast through a time of enormous transformation,” Jonathan Newhouse and Steve Newhouse wrote in announcing the management change. After the new CEO is hired, Jonathan Newhouse will become chairman and will relinquish his position as CEO of Condé Nast International.

In 2011, Sauerberg launched Condé Nast Entertainment, a production and distribution studio that produces digital video content averaging over 1 billion views per month and has released four feature films and several TV series.

Other senior execs of Condé Nast and Condé Nast International, including Wolfgang Blau, president of the international division, will remain in their positions. The company plans to continue to operate out of headquarters in New York and London.