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Wanderful Media Appoints Doug Kilponen as Chief Operating Officer

LOS GATOS, CA — (Marketwire) — 12/06/12 — , a new discovery shopping company based in Silicon Valley, today announced the appointment of Doug Kilponen as its chief operating officer. Bringing nearly 20 years of experience in business development, product management, customer acquisition and product marketing, Kilponen will oversee all business units and collaborate with CEO Ben T. Smith, IV on strategic goals.

Kilponen joins Wanderful Media from , where he was senior vice president. As an original member of the MerchantCircle team, Kilponen held roles in product management, customer acquisition and business development. MerchantCircle was a profitable local Internet media company acquired last summer by .

Prior to MerchantCircle, Kilponen was director of product management and product marketing at Digital Impact, now . He also served as eCommerce product manager at and spent four years at , a management consulting firm. He began his career at , one of the largest advertising agencies in the U.S. Kilponen holds a B.A. from Northwestern University and an MBA from the Kellogg Graduate School of Management.

Wanderful Media is poised to build a compelling product experience that will connect consumers with a dynamic marketplace of local shopping opportunities. The company is creating an online platform for shoppers to explore products and sales with the mission of connecting shoppers with local brick and mortar retailers.

Founded in November 2011, Wanderful Media is headquartered in Los Gatos, Calif., with a development and operations office in Chico, Calif.

“When Ben approached me about joining Wanderful Media, I was drawn by the opportunity to build something exciting in this unique partnership of local Internet expertise and traditional media distribution. We-ve been fortunate to have a lot of familiar faces, including many from our old team at MerchantCircle, come to Wanderful for the opportunity to innovate for some of the biggest media properties in the country. I-m excited about the team and the opportunity to lead the company into the next phase of innovation and growth for discovery shopping.”
– Doug Kilponen, COO of Wanderful Media

“As COO, Doug will focus on defining and managing the company-s overall strategic operations, as well as developing new revenue and partnership opportunities. Over the years Doug and I have built profitable businesses with high-performing, enthusiastic teams. Doug has already been invaluable in our efforts to grow the Wanderful Media team and set its initial direction. It is a pleasure to work again with his insight, leadership and integrity to tackle the local discovery shopping opportunity.”
– Ben T. Smith, IV, CEO of Wanderful Media

Seasoned executive Doug Kilponen joins @WanderfulMedia management team as COO Welcome to the team, Doug

Wanderful Media is a Silicon Valley company reinventing local discovery shopping. Providing reach into more than 80 percent of U.S. markets through trusted media brands, Wanderful Media helps retailers bring consumers into local stores and gives consumers the most convenient way to discover local merchandise. The company is backed by a powerful group of media companies including Advance Digital, A. H. Belo Corporation, Community Newspaper Holdings Inc., Cox Media Group, The E. W. Scripps Company, Gannett Co., Inc., GateHouse Media, Inc., Hearst Corporation, Lee Enterprises, MediaNews Group, The McClatchy Company, and The Washington Post Co.

Unlike price comparison, daily deal and couponing sites, Wanderful Media makes discovery shopping engaging, fun and social for consumers, wherever they are and however they shop — tablet, mobile and web. The company-s Find n Save® product offers local media affiliates a complete discovery shopping solution, designed to connect retail advertisers with millions of consumers. Wanderful Media is headquartered in Los Gatos, Calif. and on the web at .

Scott Lechner
Kulesa Faul for Wanderful Media
650-340-1987