(New York, NY) – MODA Licensing, Inc. has been appointed as the exclusive licensing agent for Taste of Home, the #1 Cooking Magazine in the world.  Taste of Home is the world’s leading multi-platform provider of food, cooking and entertaining content.  It comprises three magazines, 40 special interest recipe collections for sale at retail and grocery stores each year, dozens of cookbooks (including the bestselling Taste of Home Cookbook), 300 local cooking schools staged annually around the country, and a thriving online community including 2.1 million unique visitors to tasteofhome.com and more than 85,000 friends on Facebook alone.
Taste of Home is part of the Reader’s Digest Association’s Food & Entertaining Affinity, the first and only media community designed to unify the voices and experience of everyday cooks and home entertainers.
Lisa Karpinski, North American Chief Marketing Officer, Taste of Home, comments, “Taste of Home was introduced in 1993 and since that time the brand and its strong following of people who love to cook and cook to love has grown exponentially.  We look forward to working with MODA Licensing to bring licensed products to market that have the Taste of Home sensibilities and will appeal to our loyal and passionate audience and beyond.“
“We have a unique relationship with this community, which we will leverage to provide meaningful data for our licensee partners—a benefit that differentiates us in the marketplace,” adds Ms. Karpinski.
According to Michelle Alfandari, Pres/CEO of MODA, “Taste of Home is uniquely positioned for growth, leveraging  a loyal community of over 50 million people and an extremely strong brand identity based on user-generated recipes and the lifestyle of ‘cooking, caring and sharing.’   Taste of Home grew from direct, viral marketing and new media platforms before most people knew what that was.  Taste of Home content creates a myriad of relevant and exciting opportunities that will extend this brand to all things having to do with cooking, the kitchen and food. “
Ms. Alfandari continues, “We strongly believe that the success Taste of Home has had with its core business will extend to licensing.  Taste of Home has significant differentiators, including real food and experiences from real home cooks, and that authenticity has timeless and broad-based consumer relevance.  This amazing brand will soon grow to branded merchandise that will dominate in its space as it touches a very large and growing consumer base through traditional and new media.  We are very excited and pleased to be working with such a dynamic and entrepreneurial group of people.”
About Taste of Home
Taste of Home is a leading multi-platform producer of information on food, cooking and entertaining, serving home cooks with engaging media that capture the joy and comfort received from food made with love. Taste of Home publishes three magazines, including the flagship Taste of Home—America’s largest cooking magazine, with a circulation of 3.2 million—Healthy Cooking and Simple & Delicious; top-selling bookazines; newsstand specials; and popular cookbooks. Traffic on tasteofhome.com increased 190 percent, to 2.1 million monthly UVs, from December 2007 re-launch to December 2009. Taste of Home is part of Reader’s Digest Association’s Food Affinity (The Reader’s Digest Association, Inc.) More information can be found atwww.tasteofhome.com.
About MODA Licensing, Inc.
A global licensing agency established in 1988, MODA is a leader in using licensing to add value and build businesses from brands, trademarks and technology across diverse industries and retail channels. Headquartered in NYC with Global Associates worldwide, MODA offers a full range of services including consulting. Proven methodology has resulted in enduring and profitable brand extensions for clients (Fortune 500, non-profits, sports events, publishing and hospitality), delivering incremental revenue, protecting intellectual property and enhancing core business.