The New York Times Company yesterday named James M. Follo, the former chief financial officer of Martha Stewart Living Omnimedia, as its chief financial officer.<br /><br />The appointment of Mr. Follo, who will also be a senior vice president, is effective Jan. 8. He will succeed Leonard P. Forman, who is retiring at the end of December.<br /><br />Mr. Follo “is a seasoned financial executive,” Janet L. Robinson, president and chief executive of the Times Company, said in a statement. “His extensive track record working with a wide range of media and in communicating with Wall Street will be extraordinarily valuable as we execute our multiplatform strategy.”Mr. Follo, 47, left Martha Stewart Living in March after serving in various capacities there since 1998. He is a certified public accountant.<br /><br />Before joining Martha Stewart Living, Mr. Follo held several positions at General Media International Inc., a diversified publishing company. Before that, he worked at Grant Thornton, an independent public accounting firm.<br /><br />In 2004, Mr. Follo testified in the criminal trial of Ms. Stewart as a government witness, taking the stand while the jury was out of the courtroom to relate how he had sometimes sparred with Ms. Stewart over her expenses.<br /><br />Answering questions from the prosecution, Mr. Follo told the court he had objected to paying $17,000 a year for Ms. Stewart’s weekend driver.<br /><br />“I would not consider that to be within the company policy or potentially, the tax rules,” he said. He said he had more than 10 conversations with Ms. Stewart, some contentious, about expense reimbursements.<br /><br />Faced with sagging revenue and pressured by the migration of readers and ad dollars online, the Times Company has been cutting costs and trying to reconfigure its businesses to take better advantage of the Internet. Last year, the company acquired About Inc. and its Web site About.com, for about $410 million. In September, it said it would sell its nine television stations.<br /><br />In addition to naming Mr. Follo to the position of chief financial officer, the Times Company promoted four other executives. James C. Lessersohn, vice president for finance and corporate development, who played a crucial role in the acquisition of About.com, was named senior vice president for corporate development. Ms. Robinson said Mr. Lessersohn, was expected to continue to work “rebalancing our portfolio of businesses.”<br /><br />Stuart P. Stoller, vice president for process engineering and corporate controller, was named senior vice president for process engineering. George A. Barrios, chief financial officer and senior vice president of the company’s New England Media Group, was named vice president and treasurer. He succeeds R. Anthony Benten, who was promoted to corporate controller and will remain a vice president.