Navarre Entertainment Media has restructured its national sales staff in Minneapolis, according to VP/GM Bob Freese. A total of four employees were let go last week, including director of content acquisition Michael Cornette.
The moves were made to address a changing retail environment, Freese says. He notes that Navarre Entertainment Media — the music distribution division of Navarre Corp. — only had its head count reduced by one, as the sales staff was “realigned” and three positions were added. The company let go of two employees to its Minneapolis sales team — Stacy Savage and Ron Barnes — as well as product manager Rick Lawler.
“We realigned our national accounts sales staff here in Minneapolis,” Freese tells Billboard.biz. “We have created a national account team to call on Best Buy, Musicland and Target. We feel that’s the appropriate way to address what retail is dictating.”
Sources say a small number of cutbacks have also occurred outside of Navarre Entertainment Media at parent Navarre Corp., mainly in the IT and accounting departments. The moves were said to be related to the recent acquisitions of BCI Eclipse and Funimation Entertainment.
At Navarre Entertainment Media, Vyto Lazauskas has been named director of national accounts. He was previously the company’s director of sales, East. He will report to director of sales Ed Maxim, who was previously director of sales, West.
Freese adds that the company is looking to hire a sales coordinator position, and brought on Jesse Mason as a national account executive. Once the sales coordinator role is filled, Freese says the music division will have completed its restructuring.
Navarre stock closed Tuesday at $4.61.
