Nexstar Digital Names SVP Of Sales Marketing

Nexstar Digital, the digital division of Nexstar Media, today appointed veteran marketing executive Dennis Cook as senior vice president of sales marketing. He will oversee the digital division’s go-to-market strategy and all revenue-driving ad sales marketing initiatives in support of the advertising sales business.

Based in Los Angeles, Cook will assume his new duties immediately, and report to Lori Tavoularis, chief revenue officer at Nexstar Digital. Nexstar Digital, with more than 133 million monthly unique visitors, says it prides itself on “producing premium local and national news content that delivers highly engaged and valuable audiences to advertisers.”

A marketing and media industry veteran, Cook has held leadership roles in consumer marketing, affiliate distribution, and ad sales marketing at Sony Pictures Television, The Walt Disney Co., CBS Television, Showtime and ESPN. Throughout his 20-plus years in broadcasting, cable, syndication and digital media, “Cook has consistently demonstrated his ability to launch and grow new businesses and brands – driving ratings, revenue, and profitability,” Nexstar said.

Cook joins Nexstar Digital from Gamut, a Cox Media Group company, where he led all marketing, communications, creative services and insights teams focused on driving streaming ad sales revenue. During his tenure at Gamut, brand awareness grew 174%, website traffic grew 249%, and revenue increased 152%. Under his leadership, Gamut also won the Broadcasting & Cable Advanced Advertising Innovation Award, the Digiday Video & TV Award, and he was named to the Cynopsis Digital “It List.”

Prior to Gamut, Cook spent six years at Sony Pictures Television where he oversaw ad sales marketing for off-network and first run syndicated television programming including Seinfeld, Wheel of Fortune, Jeopardy and The Dr. Oz Show. He also led sales marketing for the streaming media platform Crackle and gaming property PlayStation.

Before Cook’s time at Sony Pictures Television, he led ad sales marketing efforts at Disney’s radio divisions, including ABC Radio Networks and ESPN Radio. In this role, he built custom client solutions connecting top advertisers with the company’s 150 million weekly listeners across 4,500 affiliate stations.

Cook is an active participant in media-industry related organizations including the IAB Advanced TV & Digital Video Committee, the Advertising Research Foundation Board of Curators, and the Forbes Agency Council. He also has been a guest speaker at numerous industry conferences including MediaPost’s OMMA Global and the Brand Innovators Trade Marketing Summit.