Kathy Doyle has been promoted to CEO of Networld Media Group, a publisher of nine business-to-business websites, including FastCasual and ATM Marketplace. She most recently served as publisher and president of the company and replaces Tom Harper, who will become chairman. Harper joined the company in 1997 following a career in radio advertising and became CEO in 2014.
Doyle, who began her tenure at NMG in 2011 as executive vice president of sales and marketing, introduced several trade events to the marketplace, including the Restaurant Franchising and Innovation Summit, now in its seventh year, as well as virtual conferences, including #QSRNext and the Pizza Leadership Virtual Summit. She filled a market niche by formulating the Self-Service Innovation Summit for the rapidly rising vending, kiosk and self-service industries, which have grown significantly over the past three years. The company also purchased Vending Times, adding to the self-service portfolio as well as creating the business site, FoodtruckOperator.com, designed to help food-truck operators succeed in a market that is growing globally.
“The company will continue to expand all verticals with new sites and events next year,” Doyle said. “We’ve always enjoyed success enlarging our footprint in verticals where we have expert journalists and long-time customers and relationships with people that help shape markets. We’ve continually added new content platforms of distribution as readership habits take on many new formats. We connect people and companies with niche-specific knowledge and content that helps people do their jobs better.”
Networld Media Group was formed from WaterMark Group, a print brokerage created by Alan Fryrear in 1985.
