(CINCINNATI, OHIO) – February 3, 2004 – ST Media Group International Inc. has announced that Varrone Media LLC will be its exclusive sales representative in the US and Canada for VM+SD (Visual Merchandising and Store Design) magazine, the leading publication in the retail-design industry. Effective immediately, Varrone Media will be responsible for advertising sales in VM+SD and its sister website, vmsd.com. Varrone Media will also sell sponsorships for the VM+SD International Retail Design Conference.
Varrone Media, Atlanta, GA, is a business-to-business publishing consultancy led by Angelo Varrone. As President/CEO of Shore-Varrone, Inc., a publishing company that was sold to Bill Communications in 1998, Varrone was a key player in the launch of Display & Design Ideas, The Store Fixturing Show (which grew to become part of GlobalShop), and several other publications and events in the retail market and other industries.
Varrone will report to ST Media Group International vice-president of sales Tim McKelvey, and will lead a three-person sales team. Russ Eisenhardt, formerly the group publisher of Display & Design Ideas, Retail Operations & Construction, and Point of Purchase magazines and prior to that vice-president of Bill Communications, has joined Varrone Media as executive vice-president and will be responsible for the Midwest territory. Craig Henderson, who has been an account representative for VM+SD since 2000, has joined Varrone Media as vice-president and will be responsible for the East territory, including eastern Canada. Varrone is currently recruiting the third member of the team to handle sales in the western US and western Canada.
“We're very pleased to announce our relationship with Varrone Media,” said Tedd Swormstedt, president of ST Media Group International. “Angelo is assembling an experienced team of professionals with a wealth of knowledge about the retail-design market. We're glad that Craig will remain a key member of VM+SD, and we're proud to welcome Russ aboard, as well.”
“I'm looking forward to re-entering the retail-design marketplace,” offered Angelo Varrone, president of Varrone Media. “VM+SD is a great magazine and a very powerful brand, and I see tremendous potential for future growth. I am also very excited about the opportunity to work on the International Retail Design Conference. No other event in the retail-design industry allows vendors to network so extensively with 300 or more top-level decision-makers. There's nothing else like it.”
About VM+SD magazine: Since 1922, VM+SD has been the leading publication for visual merchandisers, store planners, and other retail-design professionals, with award winning editorial content and the largest circulation (more that 27,000) in its field. vmsd.com (www.vmsd.com) is retail design's #1 online destination, with more than 7,500 unique user sessions daily and more than 150,000 visits per month – the most trafficked site in the industry. The VM+SD International Retail Design Conference is the premier educational and networking event in the retail-design market, attended by more than 300 key retailers and contract-design specifiers. VM+SD also sponsors StoreXpo, the retail-design industry's only major trade show in the eastern US, part of the important New York Winter Market and, in 2004, co-locating with The P-O-P Show/New York.
About ST Media Group International Inc.: Serving the visual-communications markets since 1906, ST Media Group International publishes five business-to-business magazines, hosts six industry leading Web sites, produces three trade shows and conferences, and publishes a variety of books and other educational products for the markets it serves.