Ascend Media bumps Bishop with new CEO

Ascend Media has hired Vicki Masseria as CEO, succeeding founder Cam Bishop, a company executive said Monday.

Bishop remains chairman, said Roger Dusing, Ascend's vice president of human resources. Bishop founded the Overland Park-based company in 2002.

"Given the condition of the market, we wanted someone who had more specific experience in the medical and health care market," Dusing said.

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In an internal memo, Ascend said Masseria has 23 years in health care, most recently as group president of CMPMedica USA, where she led the fifth-largest portfolio of health care publications in the United States, as well as a large medical education business.

Ascend also recently sold one publication and closed three, all in Princeton, N.J., Dusing said. The company sold Dental Product Shopper to its publisher in early November. Ascend closed Physician's Money Digest, which ceased publication with its November issue, and Family Practice Recertification and Internal Medicine World Report, which both ceased publication with their December issues.

The three closed publications had 15 to 20 employees combined, Dusing said.

Ascend now has about 350 employees, 100 to 120 of whom work in Overland Park.

"The company is by no means imploding," Dusing said. "There is no crisis. We are simply rebalancing the portfolio in the markets where we feel we have the best opportunity to grow."

Ascend has an allied health care division in Los Angeles; a practice builders division in Orange County, Calif.; an event media group in Overland Park; and a medical education division in Califon, N.J.