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EXCLUSIVE: Bob Bibb and Lew Goldstein are departing Lifetime Networks where they had been co-chief marketing officers since August 2007. I hear the two resigned but I also hear their contracts were up and weren’t going to be renewed. The announcement was made internally this afternoon. Lifetime’s marketing team will report directly to new president/general manager Nancy Dubuc while she is looking for a replacement. Dubuc is currently in Los Angeles. She has been a frequent presence at Lifetime’s headquarters here since taking the reins of the network as she juggles her new responsibilities at Lifetime and her existing ones at History. Veteran marketing executives Bibb and Goldstein were hired at Lifetime by previous president/CEO Andrea Wong, with then-entertainment president Susanne Daniels playing a key role as she had worked with the duo at the WB. Bibb and Goldstein were involved in the launch of two broadcast networks, Fox and then the WB. Lifetime is coming off a rough past few years, struggling with its brand identity and tumbling some 20% in the ratings.
TV Editor Nellie Andreeva - tip her here.
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Boy that didn’t take you long. It was only announced 22 minutes ago. They will be missed and we wish them great success where ever they land. Truly legendary in brand marketing.
Who’s your mole at Lifetime? Don’t take hearsay as fact, especially when it comes to contracts in this town.
They should hire Sheraton Kalouria! He’d do amazing things for the brand and the network.
I can’t believe it…what a huge loss for Lifetime…but what a huge gain for another network!
2 years overdue. These 2 guys are so old skool and Lifetime’s air shows. Looks like NBC from 80s, WB from the 90s….oh right the “legendary” Bob and Lew. Lifetime is in terrible shape and they can shoulder some of that blame. Oh wait, they did buy a plane!
WOW! as predicted … now what? take promo and marketing back to NY? hmmmm
I can’t believe they’ve lasted this long. I would have kicked them to the curb as soon as I saw the Nora Roberts posters.
He doesn’t have a tv background, but they should consider former Disney marketing prez Jim Gallager. He’s the smartest marketing guy out there right now and he really understands brand builiding and management.
So love that idea!
What a GREAT move that would be!
Worked with him at Disney…BRILLIANT, crazy hard worker, more creativity than he knows what to do with, and beloved by people who worked with him and for him. Consummate team player and a winner.
Sounds like the Lifetime Marketing group needs a fresh attitude, some new thinking, and a major creativity infusion. No question he’d deliver.
If they want to shake it up…he’s their boy.
Sometime two head are not better than one. Bad things happen to bad people. This is what happens when you steal the credit of your hard working staff. Good luck finding two jobs in a town that everyone just loves the both of you very talented young up and coming stars of the Dumont Network.
These and many other broadcasters are losing out by their inability to stay relevant, from both the programming and marketing sides. It’s ironic how many wrong decisions come from those so sure of themselves. Rather than chart a new course and own it, many marketing gurus tend to travel the course already traveled, chasing their past triumphs or a new one in their neighbor’s yard. The end product is never quite cool, but trying hard to be… Hopefully, Lifetime doesn’t just hire another “marketing head” who dropped the ball somewhere else.
Looks like the Karma Police finally came for these two ill-tempered marketing fossils. Don’t call me for a job.
they didn’t buy a plane. they wrapped half of a rented heap in van nuys. Biggest movies in Lifetime’s history were under their watch. Biggest series launches in Lifetime history. Lifetime’s failure is the failure to develop relevant programming that other networks have done so in the past 5 years. Nora Roberts posters? yeah…but who doesn’t take a risk now and then? NBC? Bravo’s Sheer Genius? Look at that crappy poster. and who spells school “skool”?
What does NBC 80′s & WB 90′s mean? and how does that relate to what is seen on Lifetime now?
Good story telling? Well edited? Contemporary music? Geez you people are taking cheap shots.
These guys are such misogynists that it’s laughable they even worked at a “womens” network. The whole department was all men and Bob and Lou seriously and openly HATE women and actually used Lifetime as something to be derided when they were taking credit for ideas at the WB. You’d hear them say, “What is this a fucking Lifetime promo!” when they didn’t like something at the Dubba. Then they moved to Lifetime? All they are is a crummy carbon copy of a former NBC promo monster who was rightfully kicked to the curb. Wow, a copy of a failure. I wonder why they didn’t last.
The fact that such rampant women haters got hired to market Lifetime just shows how clueless their leadership is. Ask around town and you won’t find a more despised pair of executives in marketing. Clearly Suzanne Daniels was drinking some sort of koolaid when she brought those horrible, hateful, talentless jerks into Lifetime.
I wonder who’s gonna be dumb enough to hire them now. Oprah Winfrey’s new network? Hahahahahahaha.
Wow. That just might happen.
20% off in the ratings? This is what happens when you put 2 misogynists in charge of marketing a women’s network. What was Andrea Wong thinking at the time?
Bob and Lew are talentless hacks. The only person that would hire them would have to have a needlessly huge pile of cash, and a serious head injury.
Many of you are missing the point…while i AM a fan of Bob & Lew…they are only as good as the programs they have to market. Pretty naive to blame ratings on posters you don’t like or the style of the marketing folks. Last time i looked…ALL marketing folks are just another set of soldiers…making suggestions ..but following orders. You will have to look up the food chain to blame for the current Lifetime ratings or the failure of The WB….
Amen — The whole reason Susanne and Andrea wanted Bob-a-Lew was because they “get” women — just like they got the 18-29 market. There’s a big difference between marketing and programming — a marketer can only promote what the network programming execs cook up. Look for other reasons for the changes.
It’s about F…n’ time these two time losers are removed. “Bob and Lew”, my ass!! Who’s laughing now? You and that idiot Andrea Wong have ruined the Lifetime brand, you should be proud, great work. Not only did you ruined the brand, but you ruined the lives of longtime NY employees by moving the network to the West coast. Congrats! You deserve it.
hmmmm, let’s see – 2 men who have a much-known disregard/disdain for women who’ve worked w/them thru the ages are dismissed from LIFETIME, TELEVISION FOR WOMEN??? one of the biggest jokes perpetrated in the tv promo world….
Jesus, “Bob and Lucifer” sucked. SO old skool, to a shocking degree. As cheesy and dated as an early nineties Lifetime movie yet they were brought on board with the express purpose of changing that.Yeah, THAT worked.
Then again, what do you expect from dudes who refer to women as “gals?” Wtf is THAT? It’s 2010, not a 1940′s USO jitterbug-off.
NOT good people either. Were dreadful and witheringly condescending to the NY staff before they laid off the entire outfit to move everything out to LA.
Bob and Lucifer are SO old skool. (Btw, person above, old skool is how the kids sometimes spell it, for ironic purposes.) Their POV was this super antiquated, uber cheesy, utterly ridiculous abomination that might have been appealing in their heyday back in the 1880′s (oops, sorry. meant the 1980′s). Anyone reading this unfortunate enough to work for them during their Lifetime reign of rehash: Um, the “Flying Tigress?”
Really, the guys themselves reminded me of a late eighties Lifetime movie: super lame, super dated, and insulting to the viewer. The fact that they were brought in with the express purpose of re-jiggering that very brand identity was mind-boggling to me. It’s a freaking women’s network and these old dudes still refer to women as “gals.” (Um, Bob and Lew? It’s 2010, not a 1940′s jitter-bug off. Maybe take more Geritol or something to help you remember that.)
Sorry if it seems like I’m reveling in their misfortunes. But I am. They were NOT good guys and horrible managers. Treated the NY staff with utter contempt before they laid them off and moved operations to LA.
How they were ever hired is beyond me. Then again, in TV, the old adage “Sh**t Floats” is very much alive and in practice.
Branding doesn’t have to start with programming… It can start with marketing. The real trouble here is that these 2 come from network and never had to carve out a strong distinct voice, as you do in cable. They really don’t know a thing about branding… They just know how to frame f@*k and butcher any creative ideas that come at them. The bigger problem is that they manage by trying to instill fear, which is really an ineffective way to get the best creative out of people. They know nothing about fostering creativity. They think promos are a formula which is why lifetime hasn’t had a voice/brand for the last 2 years. I hear the staff had to ASK for company holidays off… They couldn’t assume that they had off on normal holidays… And try asking for a vacation. They just weren’t nice to the staff and expected a lot from them for no reason. Creating a brand and making promos can be tough work but it should also be fun… If no one on the staff is having fun, then the creative sucks. These guys come from the school of tv being really serious business and if you’re not working 15 hour days eve day, then you’re not doing your job when really if you can’t do you job in a MAX 10 hour day, you either suck at you job or the system is broken. They do not get that.
Had a good laugh at “Gal’s” comment, with one correction. I believe the staff called them BOOB and Lucifer.
Or if they were being particularly a-holey, “Boob and Mussolini.”
You must be one of the ones who couldn’t cut it with them…and your severance package is about to dry up to dust. Just sayin’. People (like me)owe a lot to Bob and Lew. My agency has worked with the guys at Fox, WB, and Lifetime. If they were sooo mean, how come about 15 of their key people left great jobs to come to Lifetime? And check the facts–the movies on Lifetime and LMN have been the highest rated in Lifetime history…under Boband Lew.
@ falalalaluvy – Let’s be clear, half of those “key” people that went to work at Lifetime for B&L were either already unemployed and as you put it, had severance packages “about to dry up to dust” OR as was the case in some – they just hired equally dysfunctional people all taught by B&L in the art of managing by threats and humiliation. With families to feed and no available options most took jobs they didn’t want working for people they knew would give them a constant ulcer. Even if these guys were talented at what they do, there’s no excuse for how they treat people. You can’t defend that. Trust me “making the cut” with B&L is not something you want on your resume.