PodcastsOct 21, 2026
Episode 10: This Episode Is Haunted Diana Singer shared the stories of two “cursed” diamonds on this month’s podcast, which was inexplicably riddled with technical issues.
IndependentsDec 22, 2020
Longtime InStore Salesman Fran Zimniuch Dies at 66
The beloved member of the magazine’s team died last week of complications related to COVID-19.
Blackwood, N.J.— Fran Zimniuch, a beloved member of the team at InStore magazine who was also a baseball historian and author died Dec. 17 of complications related to COVID-19.
He was 66. 
He attended Temple University and in 2004, started working at SmartWork Media, a publisher of trade magazines geared toward independent retailers.
Zimniuch was the East Coast sales manager for InStore.
In a story posted early Monday, the magazine’s staff described the beloved salesman as a “pillar” of SmartWork Media, writing, “Over the years, he was a personality who helped define our character—honest, sincere, big-hearted, earnest and loving.”
Outside of the jewelry industry, Zimniuch loved baseball and was a historian of the sport, writing more than a half-dozen books on baseball as well as one about the Philadelphia Eagles.
His works include “Baseball’s New Frontier: A History of Expansion, 1961-1998,” “Crooked: A History of Cheating in Sports,” and “Shortened Seasons: The Untimely Death of Major League Baseball’s Stars and Journeymen.”
SmartWork Media CEO Matthijs Braakman and InStore Editor-in-Chief Trace Shelton were among those who shared memories of the longtime InStore ad salesman; read them all here.
Members of the industry also remembered Zimniuch on Facebook.
“Who knew that you would also become one of the journeymen of a shortened season,” friend Steve Kanelos wrote on Zimniuch’s Facebook page Sunday. “Will miss you buddy but will never run out of the memories we shared.”
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