Participant Media Taps Seasoned TV Executive In Ad Sales, Affiliate Relations And Research To Oversee The Summer 2013 Launch Of New Cable Network Targeting Millennials

LOS ANGELES (January 14, 2013)—On the heels of naming department heads for television marketing, programming and business affairs, Participant Media announced today the advertising sales, content distribution and affiliate relations and research executives that will oversee the summer 2013 launch of a to-be-named cable network targeting millennials. John Arianas, Executive Vice President, Advertising Sales & Partnerships; Stephanie Ruyle, Executive Vice President, Content Distribution & Affiliate Partnerships; and Karen Ramspacher, Senior Vice President of Research and Insights, will be based at the network’s corporate offices in New York and will report into Participant Television President Evan Shapiro.

Commenting on the new hires, Shapiro said: “As we enter a new era in the TV business, it was our goal to attract a passionate and visionary team who would help us be a leader in industry innovation. John, Stephanie and Karen are accomplished and forward-thinking executives who have earned the trust and good will of partners across the television industry. John is a tireless innovator in TV advertising and cross platform media sales; Stephanie has stellar relationships and is an enormously respected leader in media distribution; and Karen is a brilliant researcher, with keen insights into the minds of millennials as well as multi-platform media consumption. These roles are pivotal to our success and we are very lucky to have them on our team.”

Arianas will be responsible for assembling and managing the advertising sales and media partnerships team for Participant Television’s new cable network as well as TakePartTV on YouTube and Takepart.com. Arianas is a 15 year ad sales veteran having spent 13 years at Viacom representing Comedy Central and then MTV. At Viacom, he was immersed in the millennial demographic and worked to develop custom, multi-platform partnerships with advertisers. Most recently he helped Current TV rebuild their advertising sales team as they adapted to a Nielsen-rated selling model.

Ruyle will spearhead all distribution efforts for Participant Television’s new cable network. She began her career with Viacom in their distribution sales group, and held a number of positions during her 17-year career at the company in the areas of field sales, affiliate marketing, and affiliate ad sales. In addition, Ruyle led the distribution efforts for Viacom’s international content in the U.S., as well as the initial launch of EPIX. Most recently as part of the corporate national account team, she led the strategy and negotiations for a number of key accounts.

Karen Ramspacher is in charge of identifying and representing the audience/users of Participant Television’s new cable network, as well as TakePartTV and TakePart.com. She began her media career as an account planner at boutique ad agencies, joining Oxygen in 1999 prior to its launch. Karen established the network’s research department and remained with Oxygen until their acquisition by NBCUniversal in late 2007. In July 2008, Karen moved to the cable network Fuse where she conducted extensive quantitative and qualitative research that revealed the habits of young music lovers and uncovered how millennials find and consume news and information. While at Fuse, Karen’s insights were integral to the launch of the network’s music news initiative (set for later this year) and led to the network being ranked consistently as one YouTube’s top 20 channels with multi-tasking, multi-platform millennials. In 2010, Karen co-chaired the CTAM Research and Insights conference striving for interactivity and actionable insights. A passionate advocate of social change, Karen is deeply involved in philanthropic organizations that address homelessness in America, issues that impact the LGBT community and AIDS awareness.

Participant Media is an entertainment company that focuses on documentary and non-documentary (or focuses on narrative and documentary) feature films, television, publishing and digital content about the real issues that shape our lives. For each of its projects, Participant creates social action and advocacy programs to transform the impact of the media experience into individual and community action. Participant’s online division and Social Action Network is TakePart. Founded by Jeff Skoll in 2004, Jim Berk serves as CEO. Participant’s films include The Kite Runner, Charlie Wilson’s War, An Inconvenient Truth, Good Night, and Good Luck, The Visitor, Food, Inc., The Cove, The Crazies, Countdown to Zero, Waiting for “Superman,” Fair Game, PAGE ONE: Inside The New York Times, The Help, Contagion, The Best Exotic Marigold Hotel, Middle of Nowhere, Lincoln and Promised Land.