Mark Jannot Joins Reader's Digest North America As New Chief Content Officer For Taste Of Home And The Family Handyman Master Brands

NEW YORK, May 1, 2012 /PRNewswire/ -- Mark Jannot has joined Reader's Digest North America in the new position of Chief Content Officer for Reader's Digest Milwaukee, effective May 21, Dan Lagani, President, Reader's Digest North America, announced today.

Reporting to Lagani, Jannot will lead content development across all platforms for Taste of Home, The Family Handyman and the U.S. Enthusiast brands, which include Birds & Blooms, Country, Country Woman, Farm & Ranch Living, and Reminisce. He will ensure there is a unified creative voice for each of these brands across all platforms, and will drive editorial direction and strategy for each brand across branded magazines, books and digital products in the U.S.

"Mark Jannot has a reputation for editorial excellence. His experience in the digital and magazine spaces makes him an ideal candidate to speed the brand transformation underway with our Milwaukee businesses where we are focused on creating a great consumer experience for our Taste of Home, The Family Handyman and Enthusiast brands across media platforms," said Lagani. 

Lagani said this new position mirrors the organizational changes successfully put in place for the Reader's Digest brand as part of the company's North American strategy.  That strategy has fueled Reader's Digest rapid growth in paid digital edition sales making it the top selling magazine sold on the Kindle, and among the most popular on the Kindle Fire, Nook and the iPad.  Lagani said he expects sales of Reader's Digest digital editions to exceed sales at newsstands in 2012.

Jannot joins Reader's Digest North America from the Bonnier Technology Group, where he served as Editorial Director for well known publications Popular Science, Popular Photography, American Photo, and Sound & Vision, and their websites. He also served as Editor-in-Chief of Popular Science and PopSci.com.  Jannot led the editorial team at Popular Science that collaborated in the development of Mag+, the tablet publishing platform that was launched with the release of Popular Science+, one of the only native magazine apps available at the April 2010 debut of the iPad.

"This is an extraordinary group of brands, with deep ties to their communities of readers and huge potential for growth," Jannot said. "It's an irresistible opportunity to build the future of cross-platform publishing."

About Reader's Digest North America
Reader's Digest North America comprises operations for Reader's Digest Association in the United States and Canada.  It is at the core of the strategy to expand RDA owned and operated brands, including Master Brands Reader's Digest, Taste of Home and The Family Handyman, and Enthusiast Brands Birds & Blooms, Farm & Ranch Living, Country, Country Woman and Reminisce, across multiple media platforms to provide consumers content when they want it, where they want it, to expand its Master Brands geographically, and to increase partnership opportunities. Reader's Digest North America reaches consumers through its various print and digital magazines, websites and social media outlets, books and home entertainment products.

Media Contact:

Gary Davis
Reader's Digest North America
646-293-6206
Cell: 917-379-9351
[email protected]

SOURCE Reader's Digest Association, Inc.