John Cobb

John W. Cobb III is CEO of PGOA Media, a publishing, digital media and event company built around the American Profile, Relish and Spry brands. The three magazines have a combined circulation of 34 million delivered with nearly 1,700 localmarket newspapers across the country. Its 10-year-old flagship, American Profile, with a circulation of 10 million, was the second largest launch inU.S. history. Relish, with a circulation of 15 million, and Spry, with 9 million, are respectively the largest food and health and wellness magazines in the U.S. The three websites, americanprofile.com.com, relish.com and spryliving.com, reach nearly 2.5 million unique online visitors every month according to Comscore (November 2011). The company, which also produces the national Relish Cooking Show, is based in Franklin, TN, with advertising offices in New York and Chicago. Prior to joining PGOA Media, John was the Senior Vice President, Digital for Source Interlink Media consisting of 100+ web properties in the Automotive, Motorcycle, Action Sports, Marine, and Home Tech verticals with revenues of$50+ million, reaching 22 million unique visitors and 115 million page views monthly. Previously, he was the Senior Vice President, Group Publisher of the Consumer Automotive and Motorcycle Groups. John’s role was to build existing and new revenue streams, maintain and acquire customers and create synergies across platforms for Motor Trend, Automobile, Truck Trend and nine Motorcycle titles/brand extensions. He oversaw the management of 24 Motor Trend Auto Shows and the licensing division. A 1989 Ithaca College graduate, he started his career as a media planner at Bozell advertising in New York. John joined the Petersen Publishing sales team in 1990 and moved into senior management as Vice President Group Publisher by 1998. He was a key management member through numerous ownership structures. Petersen Publishing was bought by a private equity group in 1996 and subsequently went public on the New York Stock Exchange in 1997. Following its purchase by EMAP in 1999, it was acquired by PRIMEDIA in 2001 and then acquired by Source Interlink Media in 2007.