Kathy Savitt will be leaving Yahoo to take an executive position at STX Entertainment.
Savitt was one of the first people Marissa Mayer hired in 2012, coming in to oversee marketing for Yahoo at a time when the company failed to gain traction with advertisers and recoup market share losses to Facebook and Google. Her role expanded in 2014 to include the company's media division, spearheading the acquisition of Community after the show was canceled by NBC for poor ratings.
Losing Savitt is a big deal for Yahoo but the company maintains its media projects are being managed as planned, thanks to new hires like Debra Berman, J.C. Penney's former chief marketing officer and now senior vice president for consumer marketing at Yahoo, and Martha Nelson, former Time editor-in-chief who joined the company at a similar capacity. There's no news yet as to who will be replacing Savitt.
At STX, Savitt will be overseeing all of the company's global digital strategies. She is also a crucial component to the studio's plan to produce, market and distribute digital content, television programming and feature films. In August, STX released its first film, a Jason Bateman horror thriller called The Gift.
According to Robert Simonds, STX CEO, Savitt's combined expertise in creating digital content and marketing is unparalleled. This will help establish the studio as a "new and disruptive force" taking the entertainment industry by storm as it tells compelling stories to audiences around the world.
Savitt says she's excited to join the STX team, who is redefining storytelling in a time when change is inevitable in the media industry. Audiences control what they watch so shows have to strive hard to earn a spot in an audience's time.
"What we are doing at STX hasn't been done before; we are creating a new way for audiences to access meaningful stories, from wherever they are," she added.
Savitt also took to Twitter to announce her departure from Yahoo, saying she has love and gratitude for the three years she spent at the company and that she's excited and humbled to be soon joining STX and building an "audience-first content force."
Aside from Savitt, several senior executives from movie companies have also joined STX.
