lee crane

It’s odd to not know someone who has had total control over your professional life for most of the past year, but I really don’t know Time Inc. CEO Ann Moore. I read her quotes and get the sense that she is living in some kind of publishing past, when large brands meant something, and you could always win by printing more issues. I’ve also made fun of her for being a print dinosaur.

At the All Things D conference held this year at the Carlsbad Four Seasons Aviara Resort and Spa Ann sat with Kara Swisher for an interview about Time Inc’s future in the digital world. And while it’s a little too late for me to care, it is interesting to finally get a better idea of who Ann Moore is. Click here to watch the interview and you’ll see what I mean.

Ann is a strong, smart woman who probably has one of the worst jobs in media. Advertising is fleeing print, and yet she has to sell it even though there is no way that she can believe what she’s saying about print never going away. And sadly, she continues to use the word “hit” to describe traffic.

The interview is far more interesting to people involved, so if you can’t sit through the entire thing here is what she had to say about the Time 4 Media sell off:

I did sell off and divested 18 of our niche titles. These were profitable titles, but we just didn’t give them resouces and attention. They needed to be in a home where they were important and they were way at the bottom of the list for investment.