Professional Diversity Network Issues Letter to Shareholders

CHICAGO, June 1, 2015 (GLOBE NEWSWIRE) -- Professional Diversity Network, Inc. (Nasdaq:IPDN) CEO, Jim Kirsch, issues the following letter to shareholders.

Dear PDN Shareholders:

Thank you for your support this year. Because of that support, PDN is positioned to lead the marketplace in delivering diverse talent to the employers who value it and opportunity to the diverse Americans who need it.

It is incredibly rewarding to be part of a company that remains true to its mission. Staying true to ours has driven our recent year over year accomplishments, including increasing our registered users at six times the rate we were a year ago; increasing revenue for the 1^st quarter from $1.2 million in 2014 to $10.7 million in 2015; and diversifying our revenues by transacting business with 320 different companies and 18,000 paid members in the 1^st quarter of 2015.

Over the past year – on your behalf – we invested in two companies, which we believe needed to come together to build a single company that can deliver returns far into the future. Today, we are already seeing proof of concept and evidence that continued, larger-scale success is around the corner. As a single, combined company we are now:

• Saving – By eliminating redundancies from each division, realizing efficiencies between the divisions, and integrating the management and operations of all divisions, we are on track to realize $4 million in annualized cost savings versus last year's costs at each company on an individual basis.
   
• Diversifying – Our NAPW and Noble Voice divisions have helped to both strengthen and diversify our revenues. During the first quarter of 2015 NAPW added over 18,000 paid memberships while Noble Voice conducted, on average, over 30,000 career consultations per week. We are able to monetize these transactions and, taken together, our combined company recently reported revenue of $10.7 million in the first quarter of 2015 versus $1.2 million in the same quarter of 2014. Whereas our previous revenues were almost solely based on diversity recruitment products, our revenues today are diversified across multiple platforms and products, thereby building a safer and potentially more lucrative road into the future. 
   
• Growing – Our success depends, in part, on being a premium provider of diverse talent. Our NAPW and Noble Voice divisions have helped us to more efficiently access that talent, and our affinities are currently growing at a rate of over 250,000 new users per month, versus less than 40,000 per month at this time a year ago. Significantly, we now stand at over 10 million registered users, 6 million of whom have opted-in to TCPA-compliant offers, which permits us greater communications flexibility and we believe that makes those users significantly more valuable to the open market. One year ago we stood at approximately 3 million registered users, none of whom were opted-in using TCPA-compliant methods. This growth of over 233% year-over-year is directly attributable to the intelligent acquisitions we made and the efficiencies they deliver, and demonstrates that our combined companies have the capacity to serve the growing demand for diverse talent.
   
• Innovating – The combination of all three companies has given us the resources and inventory to successfully roll out our newest product, Hire AdvantEdge^TM.  Global brands and market leaders have told us that they believe Hire AdvantEdge^TM has the potential to truly disrupt the recruiting market. Through this product, which uses our proprietary technology platform, we are able to deliver job seekers who are pre-qualified to our business partners' criteria. This greatly increases quality and decreases time-to-hire, the two most critical elements within the recruiting market. We are currently conducting approximately 7,000 such consultations per day, with the capacity to grow along with anticipated demand. This innovation is a direct result of our acquisitions and their integration over the past 9 months.

One of the most exciting things about our business is that, as we build the supply side, there is strong call for optimism on the demand side. Our economy is approaching an unprecedented confluence of legislation, social change and changing demographics that is expected to ensure growing demand for our products and services well into the future.

Reaching our current scale was of paramount importance to our future success. The company is completely focused on building shareholder value and managing towards profitably.

Sincerely,

Jim Kirsch
Chief Executive Officer

CONTACT: Professional Diversity Network, Inc.
         David Mecklenburger, CFO
         312-614-0944
         dmecklenburger@prodivnet.com

Released June 1, 2015