Consumer Reports Names Gwendolyn Bounds To Lead, Grow Its Video Team

Deputy Head of Wall Street Journal Video Named Senior Director of Video for CR

YONKERS, N.Y., Nov. 4, 2013 /PRNewswire-USNewswire/ -- Consumer Reports, the world's largest independent product-testing organization, announced today that it has hired Gwendolyn Bounds to lead and grow its energetic video team.

In her new role, Ms. Bounds will oversee a team of video producers, editors and others who produce a wide range of content for the web and television outlets. The content is distributed through the digital version of Consumer Reports on tablets, the web site, YouTube, and through syndication relationships with major portals. Additionally, Consumer Reports Television News content is distributed to roughly 90 affiliated TV stations in major U.S. and Canadian markets, where it reaches approximately 40 million people each month.

Ms. Bounds has been serving as the deputy head of WSJ Live, where she helps oversee and produce all of WSJ's video content, including its YouTube channel, and also anchors a daily news and lifestyle show. WSJ Live includes a global team of 40-plus producers, anchors, and technical staff that work with The Wall Street Journal's news staff to produce live and packaged video for multiple outlets beyond its own Web site, including Hulu, Apple TV and AOL.

Gwendolyn (Wendy) Bounds will report to Christian Nimsky, Vice President & General Manager, Digital Interactive Products & Services, for Consumer Reports.

"An award-winning journalist, Wendy Bounds comes to us with a deep editorial background in subject matters that are core to Consumer Reports—from consumer products and home improvement, to autos and personal finance. She has covered these topics as an on-air contributor for ABC News and CNBC, and pioneered a popular multimedia column called 'About the House,'" Mr. Nimsky said.

During her tenure at the WSJ, Ms. Bounds was regularly involved in creating and launching new editorial products on multiple platforms, from video programming to print. She also wrote a well-received first-person book called "Little Chapel on the River" (Harper Collins, 2005) about her life working at an Irish pub and country store in New York's Hudson River Valley after the terrorist attacks of Sept. 11, 2001. She is a graduate of the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill.

"Video is a tremendously powerful vehicle to share the unique narratives unfolding daily in CR's 50 state-of-the-art test labs in Yonkers and its 327-acre Auto Test Center in Connecticut, where they routinely make news— as they did recently naming the Tesla their top-scoring car," Ms. Bounds said.

Read more about Ms. Bounds at: http://www.gwendolynbounds.com/bio.htm and find her on Twitter @gwendolynbounds.

Ms. Bounds joins CR at a time of exciting transformations and developments within the organization. During a challenging period in publishing, Consumer Reports continues to thrive: Consumer Reports magazine has a circulation of more than 4 million, including newsstand; ShopSmart magazine (launched in 2007) averages over 100,000 monthly newsstand copies, and is among the industry's fastest growing print publications; Consumer Reports on Health newsletter has grown to 690,000 subscribers. And ConsumerReports.org continues to stand alone as the top subscriber-supporter Web publication—with more than 3.2 million subscribers.

Consumer Reports is the world's largest independent product-testing organization. Using its more than 50 labs, auto test center, and survey research center, the nonprofit rates thousands of products and services annually. Founded in 1936, Consumer Reports has over 8 million subscribers to its magazine, website and other publications. Its advocacy division, Consumers Union, works for health reform, product safety, financial reform, and other consumer issues in Washington, D.C., the states, and in the marketplace.

NOVEMBER 2013
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SOURCE Consumer Reports