Springpad, the personal assistant app for organizing your digital life, has taken a major step towards appealing to a mainstream crowd.  The company has brought on former TIME Vice President of corporate development Jacqueline Hampton as CEO.  She also joins Springpad’s Board of Directors. Prior to Time Inc., Hampton spent seven years in investment banking working for CitiGroup, Salomon Smith Barney and Merrill Lynch in the Media and Entertainment Group.

The change comes at a pivotal time for Springpad, currently on the upswing as a welcome beacon for Google Reader users.  The productivity tool has proven its worth time and again in the early adopter crowd, and Springpad’s set its sights on the mainstream consumer, an end user that’s gaining technical savvy by the day.  Hampton has the experience from the traditional media sector to help Springpad make this transition, liaising between the old school of thought and the new school of tech.

“It’s really taking the trust people have for brands and publishers as voices of authority, and being able to come to you on your terms to have information on hand,” explains Springpad co-founder Jeff Janer, discussing the old school values he anticipates Hampton bringing to the table.  In an era where Amazon CEO Jeff Bezos sees value in traditional media with his acquisition of the Washington Post, it’s increasingly evident that such trusted brand values can find more contemporary outlets that directly and inherently interact with consumers on a very specific and individualized level.

“I’m excited to join the Springpad team because of their world-class personal organizer that helps people get things done,” Hampton said. “At Time Inc., I saw firsthand how quickly consumer habits were shifting with the emergence of social, mobile and tablets. Springpad provides consumers a beautifully simple solution that was built with this changing environment in mind. It’s a perfect blend of private productivity and social search, with suggestions from friends and trusted brands.”

There are two primary ways in which Hampton hopes to establish her vision for raising mainstream awareness to Springpad: projects and collections.  Turning your bookmarked data into a project management tool delivers real-world applications to a concept already familiar with most consumers — intent.  And passively enhancing a user’s existing collections through more useful alerts is another area in which Springpad hopes to bring value to the mainstream.

The new developments reiterate Springpad’s early desire to drill down on verticals to make its service more applicable to the average consumer, and we’ll likely see more templates and workbooks from an increasing number of traditional and mainstream partners like Real Simple.

Executive-level changes hint at Springpad’s future

This is the first significant executive-level change for Springpad since its launch a few years ago, and for a startup with two founders, Hampton’s addition raises questions as to what Springpad’s long term goals are.  For the co-founders (both named Jeff), Janer will be focusing on business development and building partnerships with brands and publishers, while Jeff Chow will be continuing to build his vision around the product.

These Jeffs are perhaps best known for the acquisition of their previous startup, Third Screen Media, by AOL, but they’re not ready to sell off Springpad just yet.  As far as IPOs, acquisitions or major partnerships go, Springpad remains focused on building its own brand, leveraging distribution channels and generating revenue.  Looking at Hampton’s two areas of focus for taking Springpad mainstream, her team will likely be studying Facebook News Feed and Twitter very closely to determine how viable an in-stream promotion format could work for the productivity and personal assistant app.  There’s a fine line between proactive help and creepiness, and every major tech hub, from Amazon to Google, is trying to strike the proper balance.

Recap on Springpad’s usefulness

We recently did a comparison piece between Google Keep, Evernote and Springpad. Springpad dubs itself the “smart notebook”. It lets users create smart notebooks and save clipped articles, photos, scanned product barcodes, recorded voice memo, and even places nearby, making it sharable, public or private. The collaborative notebooks are accessible on pretty much any device you can imagine — Springpad is known for the democratic gesture of updating for all iOS, Android and web users at once.

Where Springpad differentiates itself from other note-saving services, is by going that extra mile. Whenever you save something on Springpad, it adds information to your notes. If you add the name of a restaurant, Springpad will give you a map on how to get there and reviews from people who’ve tried it. If you save a movie, Springpad will show you which theater near you is showing it, along with reviews and nearby activities. Save a product, Springpad will tell you what store offers it for the cheapest price, and alert you when the price changes.

Tucked neatly into Hampton’s announcement as CEO is a new strategic partnership with Real Simple and Bookish.com.

“Real Simple provides users with solutions to make their lives easier,” said Kathleen Harris, editor of RealSimple.com. “Springpad’s mission of helping people remember great ideas and get things done in a mobile-friendly way maps well with ours. We couldn’t be more excited to be working with Jacqueline and the Springpad team. It’s a natural fit.”

With more than 4.5 million registered users, Hampton has an active and proficient user base on her hands. We utilize and love Springpad here at SiliconANGLE, so from us to you, Hello Jacqueuline!