Nexstar Digital Sets Key Leadership Posts

Nexstar Digital LLC, the wholly-owned digital media technology and digital advertising agency subsidiary of Nexstar Media Group, today announced two key leadership appointments, effective immediately.

Anthony “Tony” Katsur, has been appointed to the newly created position of SVP of platforms, where he will be responsible for leading the technology teams across Mass², Yashi, Kixer and Lakana. In addition, Michael Kestenbaum, has been named to the newly created position of SVP of strategy and corporate development, overseeing all strategy and investment initiatives to support organic and M&A-driven growth.

Both Katsur and Kestenbaum will report directly to Gregory Raifman, president of Nexstar Digital.

Commenting on his new role, Katsur said: “Nexstar Digital’s suite of local and national digital marketing products, content monetization solutions and digital services allow small and mid-sized media publishers and businesses to maximize revenues across every available channel. In this new role, I will leverage the digital technology expertise, management experience and relationships built over my career to integrate and align our technologies to strengthen our overall product portfolio while elevating the level of service and engagement with our customers and partners. I look forward to working alongside the exceptional digital media teams at Mass², Yashi, Kixer and Lakana, while collaborating with Greg, Michael and others to develop new opportunities to drive revenue and market share growth for Nexstar Digital.”

Kestenbaum remarked on his new role: “Through its existing portfolio, Nexstar Digital is in a strong position to innovate in the rapidly growing digital media market. Our objective is to support and optimize the current businesses through investments and acquisitions while expanding into new but symbiotic areas of the digital media landscape. In this new role, I look forward to working with Greg and the Nexstar Digital management team to develop strategies and identify business opportunities that will accelerate Nexstar Digital’s growth and bring next generation solutions and product offerings to market.”

Katsur is an advertising technology veteran who brings two decades of executive leadership and operational experience at innovative technology companies to his new role at Nexstar Digital. He most recently was president of Sonobi, an ad technology developer and direct audience company. During his tenure, he implemented strategy, recruited/led teams and executed business with leading agencies, brands and media companies. Prior to that, he held global leadership roles at Rubicon Project, MediaMath and Maxifier, where he served as CEO.

Earlier in his career, he joined DoubleClick via the acquisition of NetGravity and quickly ascended to lead multiple product, operations and engineering divisionsKatsur is a current Investor and advisory board member of Stackpop and RevCascade and is a former advisory board member of iSocket (acquired by Rubicon Project).

Kestenbaum is a proven corporate development executive with extensive M&A, investing and strategic planning experience. Previously, he served as head of strategy for IAC, a media and Internet company composed of well-known consumer brands including HomeAdvisor, Vimeo, Ask.com and Match Group’s online dating portfolio.

Kestenbaum also served on the board of directors of Points International, a provider of reward and loyalty services. Earlier in his career, he was a media and technology investment banker for Merrill Lynch and Credit Suisse. Kestenbaum earned his bachelor’s degree in molecular biophysics and biochemistry and psychology from Yale University.