American Media, Inc. Names Dean Durbin Executive Vice President and Chief Financi...( NEW YORK Jan. 21 /- American Medi...),Health

NEW YORK, Jan. 21 /PRNewswire/ -- American Media, Inc. (AMI) today announced that Dean Durbin has been named Executive Vice President and Chief Financial Officer of American Media Operations, Inc. (AMOI), its operating subsidiary. Mr. Durbin, an executive with more than 30 years of financial and publishing experience, succeeds Jack Craven, who has resigned and will serve as a consultant to the company.

As AMOI's Executive Vice President and Chief Financial Officer, Mr. Durbin will have responsibility for the company's finances, accounting, financial reporting, information technology and planning functions. He will also play a significant role in the company's business development activities, and be involved with investor relations.

Mr. Durbin previously spent seven years at Vertis Communications, Inc., a provider of print advertising, direct marketing solutions, and related value added services to retail and consumer services companies, most recently as Chief Executive Officer, a position in which he managed assets totaling $1.1 billion. He spent his first four years at Vertis as Senior Vice President and Chief Financial Officer. Mr. Durbin's experience also includes positions as Senior Vice President and Chief Financial Officer at both TC Advertising and The Thomson Corporation-Professional Publishing Group. He began his business career at The McGraw-Hill Companies, eventually becoming the Vice President, Construction Group Controller.

"Dean has wide-ranging experience in financial reporting and analysis, strategic planning, forecasting, Sarbanes-Oxley compliance, mergers, acquisitions and divestitures, and I expect that he will be an excellent addition to our senior management team and a contributor to our continued success," said David Pecker, AMI's Chairman and CEO.

"I want to thank Jack Craven for his outstanding contributions to AMI," Mr. Pecker continued. "He guided us through the restatement process and brought our required
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