PlanetOut CFO to stand down
LGBT media giant PlanetOut has announced the departure of their chief financial officer.
40-year-old Daniel J. Miller is the latest staff member to leave the company, which earlier this year was forced to close its international offices and cut back on staff.
Last month a company that invests the wealth of Microsoft founder Bill Gates purchased a major stake in PlanetOut, rescuing them from bankruptcy.
PlanetOut closed its international offices, including one in London, and laid off 273 employees, around 15% of the workforce.
Mr Miller will leave on 30th September to “pursue another career opportunity,” according to company spokesman Kevin Nyland.
PlanetOut owns The Advocate, Out magazine, Gay.com, PlanetOut.com, Advocate.com, Out.com, OutTraveler.com and HIVPlusMag.com, as well as localised versions of the Gay.com site in English, French, German, Italian, Portuguese and Spanish.
Earlier this month Bob Allen, chief of magazine titles Out and The Advocate, left the company.
PlanetOut CEO Karen Magee announced his exit as part of a plan to return the company to financial stability and profitability.
“We must increase the level of integration between our online and print businesses,” she told staff in an internal memo.
“This is especially important in the areas of advertising sales, where we must significantly increase our revenue, and in editorial content where we need to maximise our resources and talent across platforms.”
Ms Magee told Dow Jones in July that it would take at least 12 to 24 months to turn PlanetOut around and that the company may sell its adult businesses.
In the USA, PlanetOut faces competition from MTV owner Viacom who run the Logo gay television network, itself owning 365Gay.com, AfterEllen.com and AfterElton.com. And Washington Blade owner, Window Media LLC.
