Platinum Studios named William Widmaier to the newly created post of president of new media, a move the company said was the first step in a major expansion of its online and other digital activities.
Scott Mitchell Rosenberg, chairman of Platinum Studios, confirmed the appointment and said that Widmaier brought with him a unique blend of experience in the online, entertainment and animation industries that made him the perfect executive to lead the studio’s growth in these emerging areas.

Rosenberg said he already was working with his new executive on hiring “significant additional staff” within the next 45 days and suggested that Platinum might acquire existing Internet properties as well.

“We are dramatically increasing our online presence,” Rosenberg said. “This will allow us to deepen our relationship with our fans, our customers. We already have that through print, but through online it becomes more intimate and immediate.”

Platinum is working on an umbrella site for all its activities that it intends to launch late in the summer, but Rosenberg declined to divulge further details about its digital media plans.

Widmaier formerly was vp marketing and market development at EarthLink, where he was key to that company’s growth and successful initial public offering.

“William is one of those marketing gurus you hear about — the kind you hope your competition doesn’t have,” EarthLink founder Sky Dayton said.

Among his other achievements, Widmaier’s career includes being CEO of Nancy Cartwright’s animation and development house Sportsblast, where he helped make “The Kellys” an online hit for Sportsblast and its co-producer, Turner Sports Interactive.

Platinum Studios is an entertainment company that controls the world’s largest independent library of comic book characters in many genres and styles, which it adapts and produces for all forms of media.