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Zinio To Offer Starwood Hotels & Resorts Guests Immediate Access to Favorite Digital Magazines

Posted on: Wednesday, 27 May 2009, 08:00 CDT

- Global Partnership Enables Zinio Magazines to be Read Online or Downloaded at Four Points by Sheraton, Aloft, and Element -

NEW YORK, May 27 /PRNewswire/ -- Zinio, the global leader in digital and interactive publishing products and services, today announced a global partnership with Starwood Hotels & Resorts Worldwide, Inc. (NYSE: HOT) to provide guests at its portfolio of specialty select hotels with access to a branded newsstand, offering digital magazines. The hotel-branded digital newsstands -- powered by Zinio -- will feature select single issues, for guests to enjoy during their stay at all Element and Aloft properties and participating Four Points by Sheraton properties.

"We are excited to align ourselves with Starwood to enhance its current guest amenity offering with Zinio's digital-reading experience, driving mutual brand awareness and cultivating consumer adoption," said Rich Maggiotto, President & CEO, Zinio. "Leveraging Zinio's desire to offer on-the-go readers their favorite magazines anytime and anywhere is a logical fit for Starwood's specialty select properties."

The digital newsstand, which will be accessible in Starwood's guest rooms and lobby kiosks, will offer participating titles including: Caribbean Travel & Life, Destination Weddings & Honeymoons, Field & Stream, Golf Fitness Magazine, Kiteboarding, Macworld, mental_floss, Outside, Outside's GO, PC World, Saveur, Ski Magazine, Skiing, Spa Magazine, U.S. News & World Report, Wakeboarding and Working Mother. Also, Starwood will be the first hotel company to offer VIVmag (www.vivmag.com), the first interactive digital women's luxury-lifestyle magazine, conceived and designed exclusively to be read digitally.

Additionally, the newsstand will offer the following international titles for Argentina (El Grafico, Lugares); China (Business Management Review, CAIJING MAGAZINE, Digitimes, Elegance, Money Talks, Prestige, Scientific America Chinese Edition); France (L'Express, Le Point); Italy (Giardini, Outside Italia, Voyage); Mexico (elgourmet.com); New Zealand (Dish, Good, Habitat, New Zealand Geographic); Spain (Actualidad Economica, De Viajes, Hola); Taiwan (World Heritage); and United Kingdom (Art Review, Digital Camera World, Essentials Magazine, Golf & Travel, MacUser, tgo, Uncut UK, Woman & Home Feel Good Food, Yachting World, World Soccer).

"At all our specialty select properties, we aim to provide guests with unique experiences that help make life on the road convenient and easy," said Brian McGuinness, Senior Vice President of Starwood's Specialty Select Brands. "Partnering with Zinio enables us to extend another unique branded offering to our guests who want to keep current while traveling, without being burdened with heavy hard copies of magazines."

Accessing the newsstand on the Starwood portal is simple:

1. Guests click through from the internet portal page to the private-label newsstand where free single issues will be featured
2. Guests select a digital magazine and are directed to Zinio's registration process
3. Guests create an account with Zinio, enabling them to read digital magazines online or offline

Guests will enjoy immediate access to the world's most popular digital publications, for free, with Starwood introducing the digital newsstands through on-property marketing and online marketing efforts.

The Element North American rollout will be in May 2009, followed immediately by the global rollouts of Aloft and Four Points by Sheraton. Within the first year, the expected audience-reach for the Zinio partnership will range between three and five million impressions.

About Starwood Hotels & Resorts

Starwood Hotels & Resorts Worldwide, Inc. is one of the leading hotel and leisure companies in the world with 960 properties in 97 countries and 145,000 employees at its owned and managed properties. Starwood Hotels is a fully integrated owner, operator and franchisor of hotels, resorts and residences with the following internationally renowned brands: St. Regis(R), The Luxury Collection(R), W(R), Westin(R), Le Meridien(R), Sheraton(R), Four Points(R) by Sheraton, and the recently launched Aloft(R), and Element(SM). Starwood Hotels also owns Starwood Vacation Ownership, Inc., one of the premier developers and operators of high quality vacation interval ownership resorts. For more information, please visit www.starwoodhotels.com.

About Zinio, LLC

Zinio is the global leader for digital-publishing products and services. Zinio provides publishers with new circulation and revenue-growth opportunities through its comprehensive offerings from marketing programs that include customer acquisition, retention and cross-promotion to seamless production services, a robust e-commerce engine and extensive digital delivery, circulation and fulfillment services. Major publishing partners include Alpha Media Group, Bonnier Group, Hachette Filipacchi Media U.S., Hearst, IDG, Mariah Media, Inc., Martha Stewart Living Omnimedia, McGraw-Hill, Playboy Enterprises, Inc., Rogers Publishing Limited, Source Interlink Media, The Economist, Transcontinental and Ziff Davis. Zinio has offices in San Francisco and New York with several franchisees worldwide. For more information, or to purchase any of the digital titles offered by Zinio, please visit www.zinio.com.

SOURCE Zinio

Source: PR Newswire

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