WND acquires World Ahead Media

WASHINGTON – WND continues its industry trend-setting ways by acquiring World Ahead Media, a Los Angeles-based book-publishing company with which it has been partnered for the last 18 months.

The new wholly owned subsidiary corporation will take on the name WND Books, the name that has become synonymous with best-selling and cutting-edge titles for more than five years.

WND and World Ahead Media had recently partnered on Jerome Corsi's "Late Great USA," Joseph Farah's "Stop the Presses!," Kathleen Willey's "Target," and Aaron Klein's "Schmoozing With Terrorists."

Under the terms of the deal, World Ahead Media Chief Executive Officer Eric Jackson will remain in that position with WND Books, taking on the additional responsibilities of executive vice president of strategy for the parent corporation. Norman Book, formerly vice president at World Ahead Media, becomes executive vice president of operations for the parent corporation, overseeing finance, administration and technology.

"This is a very exciting historical moment for WND," said Farah, WND's founder, editor and chief executive officer. "Not only does the acquisition mark the first major expansion for WND, but it represents a chance to join forces with some very talented people with whom we have had a chance to work closely over the last two years – people we respect and like and who add a new dimension to our growing media company."

Jackson is an award-winning author and former Silicon Valley businessman who directed marketing for the online payment service PayPal. He played an integral role in the company’s emergence as the industry leader and helped catapult the dot-com from losing $10 million per month in 2000 to profitability and an IPO in early 2002. The Stanford economics grad served as PayPal’s senior director of U.S. marketing, as well as the interim vice president of marketing following its acquisition by eBay in late-2002.

Book is a seasoned veteran of technology companies. He, too, worked with PayPal as financial systems manager and played a key operational role in supporting the company's IPO and subsequent acquisition. He is a graduate of Stanford, where he co-founded The Stanford Review, and has a master's degree from Dallas Theological Seminary.

"WND has become the Web's leading independent news site thanks to the vision and persistence of Joseph Farah and his team," said Jackson, whose book about the rise of another Internet powerhouse, "The PayPal Wars," won the 2005 Writers Notes Book Award. "This deal between World Ahead Media and WorldNetDaily creates a company that will continue to lead the New Media revolution."

Added Book: "Considering our track record on WND Books ? a New York Times best-seller and multiple non-fiction hits ? it's clear that the collaboration between World Ahead and WND is already a winner. World Ahead is excited to be joining the WND family."

WND Books will remain headquartered in Los Angeles, expanding WND's West Coast presence. WND now has offices in southern Oregon, Los Angeles, Washington and Jerusalem.

WND Books was founded by Farah in 2002 and immediately made its impact felt in the book industry with the first of a series of New York Times best-sellers in Michael Savage's "The Savage Nation."

Among the more than 40 titles published by WND Books since then are "The Enemy Within" by Savage, "Breach of Trust" by Sen. Tom Coburn, "The Third Terrorist" by Jayna Davis, "The Marketing of Evil" by David Kupelian, "Shooting Back" by Charl van Wyk, and "Atomic Iran" by Jerome Corsi.

WND was the first Internet content company to launch a line of books. With the acquisition, it becomes the first Internet content company to own its own book-publishing company.

But WND, the leading independent Internet news source, is known for being first.
It was honored as "the most popular website in the world" by the now-defunct European-based Global 100 ranking service, a website that allowed users to rank their favorite destinations on the Net, music groups, TV shows, movies, etc. In fact, WND remained No. 1 for more than 100 weeks in a row – an indication it has "the most loyal and passionate readers," said Farah.

WND has also been consistently ranked by several major Internet ratings agencies as the "stickiest" news site on the Internet – meaning readers average more time on it than any other.

By WND's own traffic counts, the site attracts about 8 million "unique visitors" (meaning different people) every month. It attracts between 50 million and 70 million pageviews per month.

WND was also the first Internet content site to launch a daily, nationally syndicated radio show, "Farah Live," based on that content. And WND was the first content site on the Net to launch columnists into weekly syndication, including David Limbaugh, Bill O'Reilly and Joseph Farah.

But the impact of WND Books on the publishing industry is one of the great untold stories of the New Media. As a result of the launch of the label in 2002, every major book-publishing company in the U.S. began their own imprints to compete head-to-head with WND Books. Thus, five years later, many more voices are being heard as a result and there's more competition for those voices in a publishing industry that once ignored them, said Farah.

Check out complete list of WND Books.

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