Wine Enthusiast Companies Strengthens Media Business with New Hires, Promotions, and Region Expansions Including Dara P. Kapoor as Vice President of Content, John Capone as Managing Editor of Print, and Emily Saladino as Managing Editor of Digital

New Team Reinforces Company as the Ultimate Source of Innovation and Information Around Wine and Upholds Long-Standing Blind Tasting Process

VALHALLA, N.Y.--(BUSINESS WIRE)--Wine Enthusiast Companies, composed of Wine Enthusiast Media and Wine Enthusiast Commerce, announced several new hires, promotions, and region expansions on the Wine Enthusiast Media side of the business. Over the past year, Wine Enthusiast has expanded its reach to nearly four million readers across print and digital monthly. In addition to double-digit growth on the digital side of the business, label promotions grew more than 30%. Key new roles include Dara P. Kapoor as Vice President of Content, John Capone as Managing Editor of Print, and Emily Saladino as Managing Editor of Digital.

The new team follows the recent naming of Jacqueline Strum as President & Publisher of Wine Enthusiast Media and Erika Strum Silberstein as President of Wine Enthusiast Commerce. Jacqueline and Erika have a shared goal of working together to integrate both sides of the company’s operations while maintaining bottom-line responsibility for their respective parts of the business.

“Having a VP of Content with Dara’s impressive background and digital expertise is an important step in Wine Enthusiast’s evolution in the modern media landscape and providing content that resonates with all generations of wine and spirit consumers,” said Jacqueline Strum, President & Publisher of Wine Enthusiast Media. “Bringing John on board and elevating Emily to respectively oversee the print and digital editorial teams reinforce Wine Enthusiast’s position as the ultimate source of innovation and information around wine. We are thrilled to have such strong executives in these key roles.”

Additional updates to the Wine Enthusiast Media team include:

• Stacy Briscoe hired as Senior Editor of Print
• Sherrill Flaum promoted to Advertising Director
• Greg Remillard promoted to Executive Director of Digital Advertising
• Jacy Topps hired as Assistant Editor of Print

Further, Wine Enthusiast continues its long-standing practice of blind tasting wines for all ratings and reviews, tasting more than 25,000 wines annually. Recent updates to the tasting team include:

• Mike DeSimone adds Spain to his oversight, now reviewing wines from the Middle East, Asia and Spain.
• Christina Pickard adds England to her oversight, now reviewing wines from Australia, New Zealand and England.
• Sean P. Sullivan adds Canada and Oregon to his oversight, now reviewing wines from Canada and the states of Idaho, Washington and Oregon.
• Jesica Vargas joins the team as a new member, tasting wines from South America including Argentina and Chile.
• Aleks Zecevic joins the team as a new member, tasting wines from Austria.

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ABOUT WINE ENTHUSIAST

Founded in 1979 by Adam and Sybil Strum and composed of Wine Enthusiast Media and Wine Enthusiast Commerce, Wine Enthusiast Companies is the ultimate source of innovation and information around wine. With custom products reaching millions of consumers globally via direct mail, a thriving e-commerce site and a business-to-business division, Wine Enthusiast Catalog provides everything wine lovers need to enjoy wine to the fullest in their homes. Wine Enthusiast magazine is an award-winning print publication and online resource that showcases wine and food trends, enotravel, and over 25,000 ratings and reviews annually. Together, Wine Enthusiast Companies is the indisputable hub for everything wine. To be put simply, our company mission statement is: We Bring Wine to Life.