Popsugar has named a successor to founder Lisa Sugar after she stepped down as editor in chief last summer.
The Group Nine-owned lifestyle brand has tapped Sade Strehlke as editor in chief, reporting to Angelica Marden, who took over Sugar’s other role of president running the business side.
“Sade has a proven track record of growing audiences by creating digital content in the women’s lifestyle space that not only breaks through, but more importantly creates meaningful connections and impact with consumers,” Marden said. “We are confident in her ability to lead the voice of the next generation for our global media brand.”
Strehlke, who is Popsugar’s first Black top editor, has nearly a decade of digital editorial experience grounded in women’s lifestyle and politics, most recently serving as digital content director of Shape Magazine, where she was responsible for conceiving and managing all on-site, social and e-commerce content. Prior to this, Strehlke was health and wellness director for Refinery29 and deputy lifestyle editor at Time.
Related Articles
You May Also Like
“Throughout my career, I’ve always tried to bring different voices and perspective to all of the different brands that I’ve worked at and robust journalism. So that’s what I’m really excited to bring to Popsugar,” she told WWD. “It’s such an iconic brand already and it does so much so well, but I think that as it enters its next phase, there’s definitely room for it to grow with some more deep reporting, more diverse voices and just really exploring how it can reach today’s reader on various platforms.”
She also plans to build out the team, “bringing in new people and again just really exploring everything and anything that the brand can be as it speaks to young, diverse women around the country and world.”
As for Sugar, who founded the brand as an entertainment blog with her husband Brian Sugar in 2006, it’s understood that she’ll remain a key member of the leadership team at Group Nine, which acquired Popsugar in 2019.
Brian Sugar has since become president of Group Nine Media, helping to oversee the company setting up its own special-purpose acquisition company, or SPAC, with the goal of acquiring a company to merge with Group Nine.
While SPACs have been around for some time, media’s interest in them sparked in 2020 as the pandemic hit the sector hard, making consolidation, especially on the digital side, an increasingly attractive option. Companies slashing marketing budgets, more ads being swallowed up by Facebook and Google and venture capitalist investors’ waning interest in digital media have all played a part.
FOR MORE, SEE:
2021 Media Moves: Layoffs at Genius Media and More
What Dotdash’s Acquisition of Meredith Could Mean for Its Print Titles