Mark Gompertz, executive v-p and digital publisher at Simon & Schuster since April 2009, will leave the house March 15. The announcement was made Tuesday afternoon in a memo from S&S CEO Carolyn Reidy. Before being appointed digital publisher, Gompertz was the longtime publisher of S&S’ s Touchstone Fireside imprint.

As digital publisher, Gompertz was expected to bring an editorial eye to all of S&S’s digital operations. In doing so, Reidy said in her new memo, Gompertz helped S&S “find solutions to complex issues, developing policies that will serve us and our authors in a rapidly changing environment, bridging the divide in many areas of our company between our well-established publishing systems and new methods necessary to be digital publishers, and also serving as our ambassador on matters digital to the outside world.” With digital publishing now fully incorporated at S&S, Gompertz “has decided it is time to use both his newly acquired digital skills and his expertise in traditional publishing in a new arena,” Reidy wrote.

No one is expected to replace Gompertz. Jonathan Merkh, v-p and publisher of the Howard Books imprint and who has reported to Gompertz, will report to Reidy “until further notice,” the memo said.