Pacific Magazines CEO Peter Zavecz is stepping down from his role after 11 years and is moving to News Corp as managing director of Herald & Weekly Times – commercial.

His departure comes days after Zavecz revealed Pacific Magazines will be axing four of its underperforming print titles.

Pacific Magazines is preparing to move publishing of health magazine Prevention back to the US in January, also revealing it will cease print editions of Practical Parenting and Bride to Be, and will axe Your Garden entirely.   

Prevention is printed by Hannanprint, while Bride to Be is printed by Offset Alpine.

A statement from parent company Seven West Media confirmed Zavecz departure: “All of us at Seven West Media and his people at Pacific Magazines wish him well in his new role. We understand and acknowledge his decision to relocate to his home town in Melbourne with his family.”

At its Port Melbourne print site, HWT produces three main titles – the Herald Sun, Sunday Herald Sun and The Weekly Times.

Zavecz will report to News Corp’s managing director of metro and regional publishing Damian Eales and will work alongside Peter Clark, the current MD of HWT, who will shift to the role of executive GM, metro and regional digital for News DNA.

During his time at Pacific Magazines, Zavecz spearheaded the publisher’s digital strategy which involved taking back its digital assets from Yahoo7 and creating the company’s own digital assets for its magazine titles.   

Seven West Media will be announcing a replacement for Zavecz in the coming weeks. Zavecz and Clark begin their new roles on October 3.

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