Interweave Announces Marilyn Murphy’s Decision to Step Down as President to Focus on Role as Editorial Director

Interweave announced today that Marilyn Murphy has decided to step down on March 1 as Interweave President and Publisher of the Fiber Division to focus exclusively on her role as Editorial Director of the Yarn Division.

Currently Murphy holds three senior management positions—company President, Publisher of the Fiber Division, and Editorial Director of the Yarn Division. For more than five years, Ms. Murphy has successfully led the company through a period of acquisitions and strategic repositioning of its fiber category.

“I’m very proud to have led Interweave as its President during a period of solid growth. CEO Clay Hall and the executive team have been very supportive of my decision and willing to work with me on ways to continue to build on our successes and our individual strengths,” says Murphy.

“This change will let me focus my entire attention on the area of the business I am most passionate about—development of content and new products to serve the yarn markets.”

Interweave CEO Clay Hall will assume Murphy’s duties as President and no new president will be appointed.

The Yarn Division, which includes Interweave Knits, Interweave Crochet, and Knitscene magazines and their affiliated properties, will be led by Publisher David Pyle, who is currently Vice President and Publisher of Interweave’s Art and Jewelry Division. The Niche Fiber Division, which includes Fiberarts, Spin-Off, PieceWork, and Handwoven magazines and their affiliated properties, will be led by John Bolton, who is currently Vice President and Publisher of Interweave’s Paper and Quilt Division. Both Bolton and Pyle will add these new responsibilities and market groups to their current areas of responsibilities.

“We are very excited about this change as it allows Marilyn to focus on her passion and provides David and John with opportunities for professional growth. David and John are veterans with proven track records at growing print and digital media properties across multiple platforms. They are very customer and employee centric and I’m certain that they will build on Marilyn’s success,” says Hall.

David Pyle, Vice President and Publisher of Interweave’s Art and Jewelry Division, joined the company in May 2008. He has extensive experience in enthusiast media and deep experience with the crafts and art materials markets. Before joining Interweave he was Group Publisher for F+W Publications, where he managed the transformation of seven enthusiast magazines from print to fully integrated online and event franchises. Before F&W, he held several marketing executive positions at art material leader ColArt and its flagship brands, Winsor & Newton and Liquitex.

John Bolton was promoted to Vice President and Publisher of Interweave’s Paper and Quilt Division in September 2008. Bolton joined Interweave in January 2007 after selling his company, Quilting Arts LLC, to Interweave. In two years he has rapidly expanded the Paper and Quilt Division across multiple platforms, including: sponsorship and hosting of Quilting Arts TV on public television and its DVD sales; a new line of books and calendars; consumer events; two e-newsletters; an online store; and the launch of three successful newsstand-only special issue publications, Studios, Quilting Arts Gifts, and Stitch.

Two other senior management positions were announced today effective

immediately:

• Pokey Bolton will become Editorial Director of Fiberarts and will continue to act as the Editorial Director of the Paper and Quilt Division.

• Interweave’s founder Linda Ligon, who wears many hats at Interweave, will continue in her role as Editorial Director for the Niche Fiber Group.

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About Interweave

Interweave, a unit of Aspire Media, is one of the nation’s largest and most respected arts and craft media companies, with businesses in magazine and book publishing, online media, television and video programming, directories, and events. The Interweave Publishing Group features 18 subscription magazines and many more special interest newsstand publications sold on newsstands nationwide. Interweave has more than 250 books in print and annually publishes about 40 how-to books on the same subjects as the company’s magazines. Linda Ligon founded the company in the 1970s when she began publishing Handwoven and Spin-Off magazines. Since then, the company has grown to employ more than 100 people throughout the country, with corporate headquarters located in Loveland, Colorado, and other offices in New York, New York; Malvern, Pennsylvania; Santa Fe, New Mexico; San Diego, California; and Stow, Massachusetts. For more information on Interweave, visit www.interweave.com or call (970) 669-7672.