Shelley Middlebrook, associate publisher of Playback for the past two years, has been promoted to publisher. Middlebrook, 30, succeeds Kathy Hamill, who remains vp and group publisher. Hamill will be taking a more active role in developing and launching new publications for the company in the international marketplace.

‘Shelley has worked on Playback for five years, and has really eased into the role of publisher over the past year,’ says Hamill. ‘A great deal of the success of Playback can be attributed to Shelley’s solid publishing instincts combined with her knowledge of the market. Her future role will be to strengthen the Playback brand, which includes the magazines Playback International and Canada On Location, and First Take, our subscriber-based twice-weekly newsletter.

‘She will continue to assist advertisers in maximizing the marketing potential of Playback and its related products, while adding management responsibilities for editorial and circulation departments.’

Middlebrook joined Playback as a sales representative in 1992. She was promoted to sales manager in 1994 and became associate publisher a year later. Her background includes advertising sales at Quebecor, and she has a b.a. from York University.

Playback, Canada’s Broadcast and Production Journal, began publishing in September 1986, and was the first publication to be launched out of Brunico Communications. Other leading industry publications that Brunico produces are: Strategy, The Canadian Marketing Report, which is seven years old, and KidScreen, the international magazine about reaching children through entertainment, which started one year ago.