ALEXANDRIA, VA - October 18, 2000 - Lesli Rotenberg, a senior marketing executive at the Animal Planet cable channel, a division of Discovery Communications, will join the Public Broadcasting Service (PBS) on November 9 as senior vice president of brand management and promotion. The announcement was made today by PBS President and CEO Pat Mitchell.
Ms. Rotenberg will build and extend the brand equity of PBS, overseeing the strategic positioning of primetime and children's programming, online content and related education services across a growing number of media platforms. Her responsibilities will also include on-air and print promotion, advertising, and spearheading professional development opportunities for communications professionals at member stations. She will manage more than 50 employees and report to Ms. Mitchell.
"In this increasingly competitive and consolidated media environment, building a strong brand that attracts new audiences is more important than ever," said Ms. Mitchell. "Lesli brings to PBS a distinguished record of accomplishment in strategic communications and brand management, and we're delighted to have her on our team."
"As an admirer of PBS's unmatched record of excellence and distinguished history of public service, I am thrilled to join the management team of this uniquely valuable enterprise," Ms. Rotenberg said. "I look forward to working with my new colleagues at PBS and its member stations to bring even greater respect, recognition and loyalty to one of the top media brands in the country."
Ms. Rotenberg joined Discovery in 1990. Over the last decade, she has served in a variety of senior level marketing positions with strategic responsibility for positioning the Discovery Channel, TLC and Animal Planet television brands to consumers, affiliates, advertisers and promotion partners.
Since 1997, Ms. Rotenberg has served as vice president, advertising and promotion, for the Animal Planet cable channel in the U.S., where she oversees the strategic and creative development of the Animal Planet brand. Her responsibilities include directing the advertising strategy and creative execution, as well as on-air promotion, cross-promotions with third-party marketing partners, non-profit alliances and public service initiatives. She oversees all brand extensions for Animal Planet and its program franchises. Creative campaigns produced under her direction have won numerous industry awards for excellence, including the Promax Gold Medallion, BDA International, CTAM Mark Award, and the Beacon Award, in addition to Worldfest Houston, Telly, and Omni awards.
A native of St. Louis, Missouri, Ms. Rotenberg earned her bachelor degree in journalism at Boston University. She began her professional career at Scholastic, Inc., where she was associate editor. She worked as a magazine writer and editor for a variety of publications before moving to Simon & Schuster, Inc., where she was publicity manager for an alternative technology division that combined books with computer software and video content.
In 1987, she joined Vestron, Inc., as director of publicity and promotion, where she devised marketing strategies and promotional campaigns for original and acquired video content, including major motion pictures and non-fiction television series, such as NOVA, Audubon and National Geographic.
PBS, headquartered in Alexandria, Virginia, is a private, nonprofit media enterprise owned and operated by the nation's 347 public television stations. Serving nearly 100 million people each week, PBS enriches the lives of all Americans through quality programs and education services on noncommercial television, the Internet and other media. More information about PBS is available at www.pbs.org.
Photo available: www.pbs.org/pressroom
Contacts
Dara Goldberg
PBS
703/739-5031
Harry Forbes
PBS
212/708-3001