USA: Hot Topic Appoints New Vice President

Hot Topic Inc (Nasdaq:HOTT), a mall-based specialty retailer of music-licensed and music-influenced apparel, accessories and gift items for teens, today announced the appointment of Patti Bodner as vice president of hottopic.com, the company's Internet subsidiary. Bodner will report to Betsy McLaughlin, the company's president. "I am very pleased to have Patti join us in this key executive role, which will be responsible for the expansion and enhancement of hottopic.com and the strengthening of the Hot Topic brand," stated McLaughlin. "Patti brings to Hot Topic a strong Web development, e-commerce and marketing background. hottopic.com has been in operation 35 months, was profitable in fiscal 1999 and continues to experience significant sales increases." Previously, Bodner was chief marketing officer at allpets.com, directing the Web site strategy and development. In addition, Bodner oversaw corporate and consumer marketing and development of the site content and community. Prior to allpets.com, Bodner had marketing responsibilities at Digital Lava Inc, a communications application services provider for streaming media technology, Inscape, a multimedia developer and publisher of CD-ROM games and Hollywood movie studios such as New Line Cinema and Warner Bros. Bodner said, "I am excited about the opportunities at Hot Topic to continue building the already very successful Internet business and the crossover marketing with the retail store base." Hot Topic Inc is a mall-based specialty retailer of music-licensed and music-influenced apparel, accessories and gift items for young men and women principally between the ages of 12 and 22. The company currently operates 235 stores in 44 states throughout the United States and an Internet store