Mendelson, Werner join Drug Store News team

Drug Store News is proud to announce that Seth Mendelson and Steven Werner, two longtime retail publishing executives, are joining the magazine’s team effective immediately. Mendelson joins the DSN team as editor in chief/associate publisher and Werner joins the team as regional sales manager. Both will report to Eric Savitch, the magazine’s publisher.

For the last 13 years, Mendelson was the editorial director and group publisher at Macfadden Communications, where he oversaw the editorial and sales operations of such leading industry publications as Grocery Headquarters, Pet Business, HFN and Beverage World. In that timespan, he and his team were able to turn around the fortunes of these magazines through a unique editorial model that emphasized collaboration between the readers and the manufacturers.

Before that Mendelson was publisher and editorial director at Retail Merchandiser, Supermarket Business and Nonfoods Merchandising magazines. He started his career, after graduating from Syracuse University, as a reporter for Gannett Newspapers in Westchester County, N.Y.

“I am extremely excited to be joining the DSN team,” Mendelson said. “The magazine has a long and well-earned reputation in the retail industry for insightful and ground-breaking editorial. I hope to continue that tradition and give all our readers the right information to help them perform their jobs more effectively and efficiently.”

Werner also joins DSN from Macfadden Communications where he was associate publisher of Grocery Headquarters magazine for the last 17 years. In his past role, Werner served as a liaison between the publication and the general merchandise/HBC industry and was critical in developing its extremely strong market share in those categories. He also worked on special assignments for other magazines at his former company.

A graduate of Southern Illinois University, Werner previously worked on such titles as Progressive Grocer, Supermarket Business and U.S. Distribution Journal.

“DSN is a great place to continue my career,” Werner said. “I am extremely excited to join the DSN sales team and help the magazine continue its success well into the future. DSN has its pulse on the future of the mass retail industry, and I am very happy to be part of this team."

“Seth and Steve bring a tremendous amount of experience to the DSN team and we are all very happy to have both of them here,” added Savitch. "These additions are just two of the many things we plan to do in the near future to keep DSN, through its print and digital properties, the most relevant source of news and intelligence in the chain pharmacy industry.”