Mamamia editor-in-chief Jamila Rizvi steps back with Kate DeBrito taking the reins
Rizvi: moving to editor-at-large role after four years.
Jamila Rizvi is stepping back from the role of editor-in-chief at Mamamia to take on a newly created position as editor at large to spend more time with her newborn son.
Former News.com.au news editor Kate De Brito, who joined the company in September, will take over responsibility leading Mamamia’s entire editorial team of the popular women’s news and lifestyle site including Mamamia, Daily Debrief and The Glow.
Rizvi announced the move today in a email saying “from next year I’ll be moving to a new role with Mamamia … I will be stepping away from executive management and taking on a newly created position as editor at large.
“I will very much still be contributing to Mamamia as a writer and a podcast host and spokeswoman in the media. However I want to make more time to write my book, deliver on various freelance writing, TV and radio commitments and spend time with my new family.”
Rizvi is a former Rudd government staffer who took the Mamamia editorship in 2012 and then later moved to role of role editor-in-chief before taking maternity leave earlier this year.
Founder Mia Freedman signalled Rizvi would be stepping back last week in a piece called The day my friend Jamila Rizvi decided she wanted to lean back, contrasting her own concerns about telling her boss she was pregnant when she was editor of Cosmo and her reaction to finding out Rizvi was pregnant.
Mamamia has seen a number of senior departures on both the editorial and commercial side of the business including: COO Marc Barnett, head of commercial products David Johnson, head of strategy Laura Fitzpatrick, Renee Mundy who was an editor of Mamamia, Alyx Gorman launch editor of new venture The Glow and Jenny Valentish, who also briefly edited The Glow and Shelly Horton who led Mamamia TV.
Last month Freedman predicted the death of mummy blogging with the company signalling it is to launch its own Instagram-style app, a new consultancy business and consolidate all of its mastheads on one website.
Nic Christensen
Did Mia Freedman, at http://www.mamamia.com.au/jami.....fter-baby/, really manage to churn out 2,000 words on this one topic? Yes she did. Definite front-runner for the naval-gazzing Fluff Factory Award, although could be challenged by Buzzfeed’s ’10 reasons why’ listicle take and HuffPost’s “Jamila Rizvi told her boss she was pregnant. She didn’t believe what happened next!” feature.
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Jack, I read that article and I actually thought it was an honest, insightful piece on the difficulty that motherhood presents to women who also love their jobs. I appreciated it, as a woman who will one day face a similar conundrum, and also as a human who appreciates that work-life is sometimes more a tug of war than a ‘balance.’ Not sure why you call it fluff, other than that you found it difficult to identify with the issue – which reflects more upon you than anything.
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