Gannett restructuring into two units

McLean-based Gannett Co. Inc. is restructuring to create two new U.S. business units, the nation’s largest newspaper publisher announced last week.

The units will be Gannett Media and Digital Marketing Solutions (DMS). Maribel Perez Wadsworth, based in McLean, will lead Gannett Media, while Kris Barton, based in the Los Angeles area, will lead DMS.

“This reorganization ensures our consumer and B2B businesses are strategically optimized for our next stage of growth with incredibly experienced leadership at the helm while championing our culture of inclusion and driving our long-term goals for sustainable revenue and cash flow growth,” Gannett Chairman and CEO Michael Reed said in a statement.

Gannett Media will focus on content, news, business-to-business and subscribers, and Wadsworth will spend most time in the areas of customer satisfaction, audience growth, print stabilization and digital growth.

“It is both a great privilege and responsibility to lead Gannett Media as we build a strong future,” Wadsworth said in a statement. “My focus is on strengthening our journalism — this is our mission, and dramatically diversifying our content portfolio for growth — this is our promise as a vibrant, next-generation media company.”

She has been with Gannett for more than 25 years, starting as a reporter at the Rockford Register Star in Illinois. In 2015, Wadsworth was named Gannett’s first chief strategy and transformation officer, where she focused on digital subscription strategy. She has been running Gannett’s news division, which has more than 230 local news organizations and USA Today.

Wadsworth serves on the boards of the Associated Press and Skillshare Inc., and she chairs the News Media Alliance and is president of the International News Media Association. Wadsworth is also a trustee of her alma mater, the University of Miami.