Viacom’s Top Ranks Reorganized

Tom Freston shook up the ranks at Viacom Inc. on Thursday, promoting one executive and prompting another to resign in the first big overhaul since he became co-president and co-chief operating officer in June.

The changes dismantle the far-flung operations of outgoing Viacom Entertainment Group Chief Jonathan Dolgen. Book publishing becomes its own unit, reporting to Freston, while theme parks and consumer products will be merged into the Nickelodeon cable group, leaving Paramount Pictures as a stand-alone Viacom segment.

As part of the changes, Bob Bakish, MTV’s head of ad sales and strategy, was elevated to executive vice president of Viacom. He will help set budgets and strategies for operations under Freston’s control: book publisher Simon & Schuster; music publishing; theme parks; cable networks including MTV, VH1 and Nickelodeon; and the Paramount movie studio.

Bakish also will assume control of Viacom’s music publishing and theater businesses from Tom McGrath, who is leaving the company as part of the reorganization. McGrath had also been in charge of theme parks.

Freston said it made sense to put theme parks under Nickelodeon because both target kids and families. He also said that Nickelodeon, as the world’s sixth-largest licensing company, was best equipped to manage Paramount’s consumer products group.

Freston, who built Viacom’s cable group into a top performer, took his new post after the departure of President Mel Karmazin. Les Moonves, the head of CBS, was elevated to the same rank as Freston.

“This is really about taking some business units in the company and realigning them in ways that make more sense,” Freston said.

Viacom’s actively traded class B shares closed at $33.55 on Thursday, up 3 cents, on the New York Stock Exchange.

Associated Press was used in compiling this report.