In her new role, Petersen--who has deep experience in both the consumer and trade spaces--will oversee and direct all of Minyanville's children's and family initiatives, including the Minyanland multi-player gaming and virtual community site and partnership relationships such as Kaboose and The National Council on Economic Education. Petersen begins her new role today.

"Laurie has great experience in both online publishing in general and financial media in particular, so she's a perfect fit for this position," says Todd Harrison, Minyanville founder/CEO. "She's also quite familiar with the interactive children's space and women's market that are going to be a strategic focus for Minyanville Family Media."

Most recently at MediaPost Communications, Petersen edited the flagship Online Media Daily and OMMA Magazine and helped to program OMMA conferences for online media executives. She also developed and launched the publisher's Marketing Daily e-letter.

Prior to MediaPost, Petersen served as a senior vice president at investment bank Gruppo, Levey & Co. and as executive producer with online financial publication TheDeal.com.

In addition, she developed financial programming as editorial director of Barnesandnoble.com and was formerly a producer for the women's community iVillage.

With deep experience in the media and publishing spaces, Petersen was founding editor of mediacentral.com and has also held editorial positions at such publications as Adweek's Marketing Week and DIRECT magazine. Early in her career, she worked on pioneering online ventures at The New York Times Company and CBS.

"Laurie Petersen brings tremendous experience and credibility to the Minyanville family. Her experience with iVillage and MediaPost is tailor-made for building this segment of our business," adds Kevin Wassong, Minyanville president. "She has also loved delving into online kids' activities with her own daughter, so Hoofy the Bull and Boo the Bear, our two animated symbols of Wall Street, couldn't be happier about this addition to our team."

Launching this month, Minyanland is the first virtual world dedicated to educating children about the world of finance. The immersive online community engages kids and their families in games and activities that entertain them while introducing the basic tenets of earning, spending, saving and giving.

See www.minyanville.com for more information.

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