VALHALLA, N.Y. (March 30, 2022) — Wine Enthusiast Companies, composed of Wine Enthusiast Media and Wine Enthusiast Commerce, announced today 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 bringing Dara P. Kapoor on as Vice President of Content, hiring John Capone as Managing Editor of Print, and the promotion of Emily Saladino to 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.”
Dara P. Kapoor joins Wine Enthusiast as Vice President of Content with nearly 20 years of experience working in media, specifically in the lifestyle space. Kapoor got her start in print at More magazine and quickly worked her way up in the digital sphere at both start-ups and international media brands. Under her watch as Digital Content Director of Health magazine, the company doubled in website traffic, reached new revenue goals, and won editorial awards including two Folio Eddie Awards for editorial excellence. As the Senior Manager of Editorial at Babble.com, Kapoor was instrumental in transitioning multiple editorial teams during the company’s acquisition to Disney and managing four websites in the Disney Family vertical. And as the Senior Digital Manager at Conde Nast Traveler, Kapoor helped oversee the digital team during a brand redesign, resulting in massive traffic gains across the site and on social media, as well as a “Brand to Watch” accolade from Ad Age.
John Capone joins Wine Enthusiast as Managing Editor of Print. Most recently, he served as Content Director at Whalebone Magazine, where he led content development and editorial. His editorial career began at Blue Magazine and within ten years, Capone was named Executive Editor at MediaPost. His work includes contributing to the re-relaunch of Radar Magazine, providing listings and dining reviews for New York Magazine and BlackBook, writing about wine and spirits for San Francisco Magazine, blogging for NBC New York, and editing two Zagat guides. Capone has experience working harvests in Northern California and was marketing manager for the historic Gundlach Bundschu Winery in Sonoma, California.
As the newly promoted Managing Editor of Digital, Emily Saladino is responsible for overseeing all digital editorial teams and content on the Wine Enthusiast website. Saladino joined the company in 2019 as Associate Managing Editor, Digital. Prior to that, she served as Editor-in-Chief of VinePair, where the site’s traffic doubled each consecutive year of employment. Her work has appeared in such publications as The Washington Post, Bloomberg, BBC and Bon Appetit, and she has written and tested recipes for cookbooks and other media. A graduate of International Culinary Center, Saladino has worked as a recipe developer, an editor at Google, a bartender, and a line cook. She also serves on Wine Enthusiast’s Tasting Panel, reviewing and rating wines from Greece.
Additional updates to the Wine Enthusiast Media editorial, advertising, and publishing teams include the following hires and promotions (listed in alphabetical order by last name):
- 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. The team tastes more than 25,000 wines annually and provides reputable reviews as contributing editors. Recent updates to the tasting team include the following hires and region expansions (listed in alphabetical order by last name):
- 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.
For more information about Wine Enthusiast Media, visit winemag.com. For more information about Wine Enthusiast Commerce, visit wineenthusiast.com. For further biography details or headshots, contact Bonnary Lek.
Last Updated: June 22, 2023
