Daily Beast CEO to join Outside Interactive as chief media officer

BOULDER –  Heather Dietrick, CEO at The Daily Beast, has been named chief media officer at Outside Interactive Inc., publisher of Outside magazine and more than a dozen other titles.

The Boulder-based company said Wednesday that she will start her new role Jan. 1.

Dietrick launched a thriving membership business at The Daily Beast, a news website focused on politics, media and pop culture that was founded in 2008. She drove record traffic numbers and diversified revenue by expanding the company’s affiliate and advertising products.

In her role in Outside’s newly created position, Dietrick will oversee all operations and more than 150 staff at its 13 media brands, reporting to CEO Robin Thurston.

“Heather is the perfect leader to help power the next stage of growth here at Outside,” said Thurston in a prepared statement. “Over the last five years, we’ve acquired and integrated 21 diverse businesses, launched our Outside+ membership and laid the foundation of a transformative digital experience that will serve outdoor enthusiasts and brands like no other platform. Heather’s track record as a content and revenue innovator uniquely equips her to catalyze growth as we introduce a completely new web experience, launch the Outside Lab [at the University of Colorado Denver], and expand our experiential offerings.”

Before serving six years at The Daily Beast, Dietrick was president of Gawker Media.

“Outside has positioned itself for tremendous growth,” she said. “Its development of a category-leading platform has coincided with a boom in outdoor participation – which in turn increased the demand for content, services and experiences that inspire and enable new enthusiasts to spend more time in nature. As someone who has split time between Manhattan and Montana, I’m stoked to join the teams at Outside Magazine, Backpacker, SKI, VELO, Climbing, Yoga Journal, Pinkbike and Triathlete in pursuing their mission to ‘get everyone outdoors.'”

Outside also said Thursday that it is reorganizing its operating groups into four distinct divisions to facilitate growth, innovation and more streamlined decision-making. Dietrick will lead the largest group, the Outside Media division, which includes the company’s core content websites and magazines. The new Outside Entertainment division, which consists of the company’s television, audio, events and creator teams, will be run by Jonathan Dorn, who was promoted to chief entertainment officer. The new Outside Event Services division, which includes AthleteReg and FinisherPix, will continue to be led by Vice President Ross Krause, and the Outside Mapping division, which includes Trailforks and GaiaGPS, will be run by a new leader to be introduced by the end of this year.

In the new structure, each division leader will have full profit-and-loss accountability and oversee all relevant content, sales, marketing and product teams.

Outside each month reaches 80 million active consumers across its network of 25 media, digital and technology platforms.

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