Nexstar Debuts New Ad Sales Structure And Leadership Team

Nexstar Media Group this morning announced a newly-created advertising sales structure and leadership team “designed to drive ad sales across Nexstar’s diversified media portfolio by further emphasizing its client-first approach, combined with a new data-driven, multi-platform focus.”

Nexstar’s media properties include 200 owned or partner stations in 116 markets reaching 212 million people; The CW broadcast network; NewsNation national cable news network; Antenna TV and Rewind TV multicast networks; and digital news and information properties including The Hill and Best Reviews.

“Nexstar’s diverse collection of brands and media assets make it uniquely qualified to re-write the rules for today’s modern media sales organization,” said the company’s recently appointed chief revenue officer, Michael Strober. “We are hiring best-in-class sales leaders, investing in cutting edge technology and creating new capabilities to meet the needs of today’s and tomorrow’s media advertising environment.”

Leading the company’s efforts along with Strober are three veteran media sales executives:

Todd Braverman, who joins Nexstar after a lengthy career in executive sales positions at Warner Media, has been named executive vice president/head of national sales, responsible for driving top-line sales performance by identifying go-to-market sales strategies for agencies, clients, and audiences. “Braverman will ensure that Nexstar is a ‘must-buy’ for advertisers who want to reach and engage audiences at scale across all of the company’s linear and digital platforms,” the company said.

Brad Epperson, who previously was senior vice president/business operations and services for NBCUniversal, has been appointed executive vice president/platform operations & technology and will lead ad operations, including campaign management, targeting, delivery and optimization. He will ensure that ad revenue commitments and client expectations are met and exceeded and will support revenue growth through the design, development, and implementation of new advanced platforms, systems, and technology.

Lori Tavoularis has been appointed chief business officer after serving as Nexstar Digital’s chief revenue officer/executive vice president, revenue operations since 2021. She will oversee the functional teams focused on developing next-gen advertising capabilities, ensuring that Nexstar is a high-performing enterprise sales organization providing portfolio-based marketing experiences and events for both clients and audiences. She will be responsible for building new functionality for Nexstar in measurement and insight, sales enablement, marketing solutions and advertising products.

All three will begin their new duties immediately and report to Strober, who said: “I am delighted to have Todd, Brad and Lori join me as we transform Nexstar’s go-to-market strategy. Each of them possesses the requisite skills and domain expertise to build a next-gen, agile media sales organization. Collectively we all share a common belief to challenge the status quo and to foster a culture of entrepreneurial spirit which has been a hallmark of the company since its founding.”

Braverman was previously senior vice president/agency sales at Warner Bros. Discovery, responsible for driving $1.9 billion in advertising revenue and managing all agency relationships across the company’s entertainment, news, kids and young adult brands. He played a critical role in launching the HBO Max advertising product and in leading the WarnerMedia sales team through the television industry’s upfront advertising negotiations.

Braverman joined Turner Broadcasting, now part of Warner Bros. Discovery, in 2008 as an account executive for Cartoon Network, Adult Swim and truTV. He quickly evolved the sales role by serving as the brand ambassador for Adult Swim and truTV, acting as liaison between the network presidents and sales divisions.

Epperson was previously senior vice president/business operations and services at NBCUniversal, responsible for account services and advertising operations for the NBC Network, Telemundo, Golf Channel, MSNBC, CNBC, USA, Syfy, E!, Oxygen, and a variety of additional television networks. He also oversaw digital services and operations for all NBCU digital properties on YouTube, ReachTV, Anzu, Apple News, Apple News UK, and Peacock for national and local advertisers around the world. While at NBCUniversal, Epperson led a sales team of 400 in more than 20 U.S. states and countries around the world.

As chief revenue officer/ executive vice president, revenue operations for nexstar digital, Tavoularis was responsible for driving monetization across the organization and overseeing all revenue-related functions for the digital division, including national, local, and programmatic sales, digital marketing services and marketing. She has held multiple senior sales and revenue operations roles over the past 20 years, including senior vice president, digital revenue and operations, for Tribune Publishing, and head of supply for the global advertising business at Rakuten Inc.