Zinio Positioning For Growth

SAN FRANCISCO, Dec. 17, 2012 /PRNewswire/ -- As 2012 draws to a close, Zinio LLC majority owner David H. Gilmour today announced that Zinio has had its most successful year since its founding in 2001 due to several major developments geared toward taking Zinio to the next level of leadership in the digital publishing and advertising industries. These developments included the formation of a Board of Directors and the expansion of its executive leadership team.

A six-person board has been formed, including David H. Gilmour, Arthur Becker, Bill Grabe, Bill Gray, David M. Roth and Rusty Lewis. Rusty Lewis has been appointed Chief Executive Officer adding to his duties as Executive Chairman. Michelle Bottomley has been appointed President of the company. Co-founder Rich Maggiotto will partner closely with Lewis and Bottomley to drive strategic initiatives and product innovations as Chief Innovation Officer. "Zinio has never been in a better position to lead the future of digital publishing," Lewis said. "We have a tremendous team and a unique set of content and technology from which to scale this business. Zinio is going to continue to build game-changing experiences for our partners and for our users."

Bottomley added, "Zinio has achieved significant consumer and industry support as the top rated magazine reading app from the Online Marketing Institute, and four-star ratings in iTunes and Android app stores alike. Zinio was crowned the 'digital magazine leader' in a comparative review in Inc. magazine. The next transformation of the digital publishing and advertising industries will be fueled by a unique combination of convenience, discovery and content experiences that delight digital readers. Zinio delivers these, and is committed to encouraging readers to explore great magazine content and deepen their passions through that exploration. I'm excited to be part of the team that will take Zinio to the next level for our partners and our consumers."

Zinio will deliver more than 70 million digital issues in 2012. The growing popularity of Zinio's app and .com reading experience has been enabled by a number of innovative product enhancements including:

• The recent release of the Windows 8 magazine app. One of the first magazine distribution platforms available on Windows 8.
• A partnership with ShopAdvisor enabling readers to browse, shop and watch prices from both advertising and editorial pages of every magazine.
• The introduction of social "Content Collections" that offer in-depth content covering a specific area of interest (The Titanic Content Collection was the driver for Zinio winning the "Best Social App" award in September 2012 from the Internet Marketing Association.)

Zinio has over 1,300 publisher relationships and showcases over 5,000 digital magazines on its digital newsstand with readers in more than 200 countries. Zinio will announce new product and reading advances in 2013 as part of their commitment to an extraordinary reading experience.

Rusty Lewis Biographical Information

Rusty Lewis has over 30 years of senior level management experience as an owner and CEO of multiple private businesses and a senior executive and director of several public companies. Rusty brings a wealth of business success to his new role as Zinio CEO. He has been an Executive in Residence with the private equity group of Brown Brothers Harriman since October 2011 and, prior to that, he served as EVP of Strategic Development at VeriSign where he oversaw marketing, strategy and government affairs. Rusty also held the position of EVP & General Manager VeriSign's Naming Business Unit, the group managing the authoritative database of all .com and .net names and IP addresses on the Internet. Before joining VeriSign, Rusty managed a transportation systems company, serving as the President and CEO of Transcore, the leading provider of electronic toll systems globally. He has served on the boards of a public oil and gas exploration company, a public robotics company and several private equity and venture backed companies.

Michelle Bottomley Biographical Information

Over the past 25 years, Michelle has applied her business leadership and deep marketing expertise to some of the world's most influential brands including: Barclaycard, American Express, Polo Ralph Lauren, Jaguar, Kraft, Ford Motor Company, Continental Airlines, Credit Suisse, Cisco Systems, IBM, Unilever, AT&T, Amtrak, Sears, and Yahoo!, among others. As the CMO for Barclaycard, Michelle led the US mobile payments efforts winning the first Mobile Network Operator pitch for issuer of record to help usher in the future of mobile payments – as well as the US Marketing and the global Marketing teams. Michelle's experience in consumer-centric business transformation began at Digitas, formerly Bronner Slosberg Humphrey, followed by leadership roles at Epsilon and Ogilvy & Mather NY where she led the NY flagship office as Chief Operating Officer after leading OgilvyOne as President of the Direct and Interactive business unit.

Zinio Board of Directors Information

David H. Gilmour is a successful entrepreneur. He has enjoyed extraordinary successes throughout his career including the founding or co-founding of: The South Pacific Hotel Corporation, Barrick Gold Corporation, the iconic FIJI Water brand, the Wakaya Club & Spa in Fiji, and his newest start-up, Wakaya Perfection.

Arthur Becker is the Vice Chairman of Zinio. He is the former CEO of NaviSite, and remains a major shareholder. Arthur has been a Director of Vera Wang Group for 6 years.

Bill Grabe is retired Managing Director of General Atlantic. Prior to General Atlantic, Bill was responsible for IBM's US Marketing and Services, the worldwide launch of the AS 400 and was a founding member of the board of ISSC, the precursor to IBM Global Services.  Bill continues to support GA as an Advisory Director.

Bill Gray is Retired CEO North America of Ogilvy Group. Bill is currently a Senior Advisor to the Blackstone Portfolio Operations Group.

David M. Roth is the current CEO of The Wakaya Group, and a former private and public-sector executive who has held positions in the US, the South Pacific and in the Southern African region.  David is also former Chairman of the California Student Aid Commission.

About Zinio

Zinio is leading the digital transformation of the publishing and advertising industry. The ZINIO UNITY™ reading platform allows users to turn their favorite device into a personalized newsstand and access the largest selection of magazines worldwide and consume it at anytime from anywhere. Zinio users can search, save and share stories from more than 5,000 magazine titles –– in 33 languages and 23 currencies –– covering every genre, industry, niche and hobby. Founded in 2001 and privately held, Zinio is headquartered in San Francisco with offices in New York, London and Barcelona with other service partner offices worldwide. For more information, please visit www.zinio.com, follow us on Twitter at @Zinio and get in touch with us on Facebook.

SOURCE Zinio LLC