Rightside Announces CFO and Marketing Head to Join Leadership Team Executive Appointments to Help Establish Leadership Position in Historic New gTLD Launches

01/13/14

KIRKLAND, Washington— January 13, 2014 –Rightside, the domain name services division of Demand Media (NYSE: DMD), today is pleased to announce the recent appointments of Tracy Knox as Chief Financial Officer (CFO) and Kelly Johnson as Senior Vice President of Marketing. Both will join the team in Kirkland, Washington, and serve to further strengthen the company’s position as the world’s largest wholesale domain name registrar and expansion into its new domain name registry services.

“We are excited to welcome Tracy and Kelly to the Rightside team. They will play important roles in helping to accelerate company growth and build brand awareness,” said Taryn Naidu, who will become Chief Executive Officer (CEO) of Rightside when the spinoff is completed. “Each brings a wealth of experience, innovative thinking and strong leadership skills that will prove invaluable at a time when we are bringing to market our first new gTLD extensions. They will round out the seasoned executive team in place today and be an integral part of our success as we help usher in this new era of the Internet.”

In her new role as CFO, Tracy Knox will lead the company’s financial operations including accounting and financial reporting, treasury and investor relations. Knox brings nearly 20 years of extensive experience in global finance across diverse industries including software development and ecommerce. Most recently, Knox was CFO for private equity-backed A Place for Mom, Inc., overseeing the company’s operating and capital plans, and directing all finance, accounting, human resources and training activities. During her career, Knox served as the CFO of Drugstore.com, leading the financial operations, business development and investor relations divisions of the company, as well as overseeing the company’s sale to Walgreen Co. in 2011. Prior to joining Drugstore.com, Knox worked for Western Wireless International as the Director of International Accounting where she managed the company’s global financial operations.

Kelly Johnson will oversee all marketing and strategic branding efforts for the Rightside brand, as well as lead the marketing and communications teams across the company’s portfolio of brands. Throughout her career, Johnson has led teams in the technology industry to drive brand innovation and product positioning. For the past ten years, Johnson was the owner and principal consultant of VELA trio, LLC. Johnson’s approach to strategic marketing development for both business-to-business and business-to-consumer products and services facilitated her company’s overall growth. Johnson also spent 13 years working for Microsoft Corporation in both product management and business development roles where she honed her brand building and management talents.

About Rightside

Rightside inspires and delivers new possibilities for consumers and businesses to define and present themselves online. The company will be a leading provider of domain name services, offering one of the industry’s most comprehensive platforms for the discovery, registration, development, and monetization of domain names. This will include 15 million names under management, the most widely used domain name reseller platform, more than 20,000 distribution partners, an award-winning retail registrar, the leading domain name auction service and an interest in more than 100 new Top Level Domain applications. Rightside will be home to some of the most admired brands in the industry, including eNom, Name.com, United TLD and NameJet (in partnership with Web.com). Headquartered in Kirkland, WA, Rightside will have offices in North America and Europe.  For more information please visit www.rightside.co.

About Demand Media

Demand Media, Inc. (NYSE: DMD) is a leading digital media and domain services company that informs and entertains one of the internet’s largest audiences, helps advertisers find innovative ways to engage with their customers and enables publishers, individuals and businesses to expand their online presence. Headquartered in Santa Monica, CA, Demand Media has offices in North America, South America and Europe. For more information about Demand Media, please visit http://www.demandmedia.com/