Prior to joining HowStuffWorks, Westlake served as the Senior Vice President of Sales and Marketing for About.com and was a member of the executive management team that sold About.com to The New York Times Company. Prior to About.com, Westlake was the Chief Revenue Officer at Streetmail.com and held other sales management positions at Juno (United Online) and Cox Interactive Sales, a division of Cox Enterprises. At Cox Interactive, Westlake helped launch AutoTrader.com, CIMedia, Gamesville (part of the Lycos Network), ETOnline, The Sportingnews.com and Tribune Interactive. Westlake's extensive resume also includes sales positions within traditional media companies such as Hearst, Family Media and Times Mirror, as well as agency experience at Geer DuBois and Margeotes Fertitta & Weiss.
"Mark Westlake is a key addition to our executive management team as we continue to execute our rapid growth strategy by expanding HowStuffWorks' content offerings and audience," said Jeff Arnold, Chairman and CEO of HowStuffWorks. "The ongoing integration of exclusive content from our recent partnership with Publications International, Ltd., along with the introduction of new content assets such as expert product reviews, consumer opinions and price comparisons, enables us to offer our partners an even more extensive suite of contextual sponsorship and partnership opportunities. With Mark's proven industry experience and our newly expanded content library, HowStuffWorks is poised to capitalize on these opportunities, especially during a time when demand for online ad inventory is expected to outpace supply."
In December 2005, HowStuffWorks announced a strategic alliance with Publications International, Ltd. (PIL), a 30-year-old publisher of mass-market books which produces over 600 new titles annually. Through this alliance, HowStuffWorks has exclusive online rights to the vast PIL product library of over 10,000 books and 1 million images, access to over 350 writers and editors and all future content. The PIL library includes titles in most popular consumer categories such as home improvement, sports, "how-to," medical and health, automotive, home design and cooking. The deal with PIL also gave HowStuffWorks exclusive online publishing rights to two leading trusted sources of consumer reviews and ratings, Mobil Travel Guide® and Consumer Guide®.
