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Time Inc. Sports Group Names Matt Bean SI.com Managing Editor

Aug 16, 2012

(NEW YORK) – Terry McDonell, Editor of the Time Inc. Sports Group, today announced that Matt Bean is the new SI.COM Managing Editor. Bean joins SI from Rodale and will run editorial strategy and operations for SI.COM and FANNATION.COM. He succeeds Paul Fichtenbaum, who was appointed Time Inc. Sports Group Editorial Director. Bean will report to Fichtenbaum and will begin September 4.

“Matt Bean joins SI at an opportune time,” McDonell said. “His journalistic background and experience building digital businesses will amplify the great work Paul Fichtenbaum has been leading across all SI platforms.”

“Matt is a dynamic editor who brings a deep respect for the SPORTS ILLUSTRATED brand,” Fichtenbaum said. “He understands how to create and distribute content across the entire digital spectrum. His knowledge in Web, mobile, tablet, gaming and social platforms will be a vital resource as we expand our digital footprint.”

Before joining SI, Bean spent eight years as an editor and digital executive at Rodale. He joined that organization in 2004, ascending quickly to Men’s Health Articles Editor. During his tenure, Bean oversaw the National Magazine-nominated front-of-book section, edited feature packages and essays, and headed up special sections, celebrity and athlete coverage for the title, which won the National Magazine Award for General Excellence in 2010.

As mobile and digital expanded, Bean assumed responsibility for guiding the growth of Men’s Health in these areas, launching more than 30 mobile applications, winning a National Magazine award in 2010 for best interactive tool, and launching a first-to-market digital magazine platform with the debut of the iPad in 2010.

In 2010, Rodale tapped Bean to spread this aggressive digital growth to the company’s other brands, which include Runner’s World, Bicycling and Women’s Health. As Associate Vice President Mobile, Social and Emerging Media and later, as Vice President Digital Product Development, Bean guided the brands through crucial digital transition phases, holding strategic roles in digital editions and guiding relationships with Apple, Adobe, Amazon, Google and more. Most recently, he oversaw the company’s YouTube/Google channel partnership, and its Fitbie.com branded website, a joint venture with MSN.

“I’m very proud to join SPORTS ILLUSTRATED. The magazine has been a fixture for me since childhood–as it has for so many–and I have closely followed the brand through its evolution on the Web and across mobile platforms,” said Bean. “There’s no place I’d rather be to help set a course for the digital future of publishing.”

Beyond his Rodale work, Bean spent the past three years hosting Spike TV’s The Playbook, a weekly show aimed at men, ages 18-34, that had him skydiving, whitewater rafting, boxing and interviewing celebrities from James Cameron and Sam Worthington to Jennifer Lawrence and Jude Law. He has been a regular contributor to NBC’s Today and ABC’s Good Morning America, and has written for The New York Times, Antenna Magazine and more. He began his career as a reporter for CourtTV and covered Kobe Bryant’s assault trial in Eagle Creek, Colorado; the San Francisco trial over ownership of Barry Bonds’s historic, record-setting home run ball; and Winona Ryder’s shoplifting trial, among others.

Currently an Adjunct Professor at NYU, Bean is a graduate of the University of Chicago and has a master’s in Journalism from Columbia University.

About SPORTS ILLUSTRATED:
The SPORTS ILLUSTRATED franchise is anchored by the weekly magazine—the most respected voice in sports journalism, reaching a weekly audience of nearly 22 million adults—and www.SI.com, the magazine’s 24/7 sports news website. The franchise also includes SPORTS ILLUSTRATED KIDS (www.sikids.com), a monthly magazine targeted to kids age 8 and up; GOLF MAGAZINE and www.GOLF.com; www.FanNation.com, a social networking and sports-news aggregation platform; SI Presents, the magazine’s specialty publishing division; as well as SI Books, SI Pictures, SI Productions, SI Digital and SI Events. Founded in 1954, SPORTS ILLUSTRATED is a division of Time Inc., the world’s leading magazine publishing company and a subsidiary of Time Warner.

###Contact:
Scott Novak, 212.522.2687 Scott_Novak@timeinc.com