Ad Sales Executive Tapped as WB’s First President

WB Network has named its first president and chief operating officer, promoting Jed Petrick, a founding executive who has been the television broadcaster’s only head of advertising sales.

Petrick, who will continue to be based in New York, is expected to work closely with AOL Time Warner on ways to exploit the young audience the television network and the AOL Internet service have in common.

The appointment is unusual in that networks are typically run by creative or strategic executives rather than those from the advertising end of the business. The appointment may be a reflection of AOL’s aggressive bottom-line orientation.

As part of the $92-billion acquisition last week of Time Warner, America Online assumes the 75% stake in WB held by the world’s leading entertainment giant. Tribune Co., the parent company of the Los Angeles Times, owns the remaining 25% of WB Network.

Petrick previously owned a sports marketing company and was director of Fox Sports. At WB, he is credited with securing the hottest show in children’s television, negotiating the deal for “Pokemon” after he heard the property was up for grabs.

In addition to overseeing advertising, Petrick will assume responsibility for the network’s affiliate relations, research and online activities. Petrick will report to WB founder Jamie Kellner, who remains chairman and chief executive and will continue to oversee programming, publicity and promotion.

Petrick’s promotion also will enable Kellner to focus on pet strategic projects aimed at helping the 6-year-old network continue its growth streak. Though the network is still a year away from profitability, its advertising revenues have grown annually since its launch in 1995, totaling about $600 million last year. After a ratings decline last season, viewership, which is a fraction of the major networks’, bounced back this year.

Kellner said he will devote more attention to the Internet as an advertising medium and to persuading advertisers to spend more of their budgets on reaching young audiences.

“Advertisers are spending too much money on older audiences and are not focusing enough money on the next generation, who will determine which brands will be the biggest in the next 10 years,” said Kellner, whose network is the only one of the six to target viewers ages 12 to 34. “We get less than 10% of the ad dollars, but if advertisers continue to focus on the baby boomers, they will ride their products into the ground to their death.”

With the Internet expertise of AOL now in-house, Petrick said he also will concentrate on marrying the traditional broadcast media with the Web to expand advertising opportunities. Kellner said Petrick would serve as a point man on joint projects with AOL.

WB officials say cross-promotion of WB programs such as “Hype” and “Pop Stars” on AOL “may be a factor in the heavy gains seen this season in the network’s 18-to-34-year-old viewership.” They say AOL is interested in featuring more exclusive content on the Web.