Raifman Named Nexstar Digital President

Nexstar Media Group today appointed Gregory Raifman to the newly created position of president of Nexstar Digital. Raifman will assume his new role on April 1 and he will report directly to Perry Sook, chairman, president and CEO of Nexstar Media Group.

The appointment follows the announced merger of Nexstar’s local digital advertising and content monetization products into one wholly-owned subsidiary, Nexstar Digital. Nexstar Digital’s enterprise-class publishing platforms, mobile video monetization technology and professional digital agency services offer media companies and advertisers a suite of digital solutions and services designed to optimize audience targeting, user engagement and the overall performance of online, mobile and multimedia content and marketing campaigns.

Nexstar Digital employs more than 400 technology and sales professionals with locations in Los Angeles, Minneapolis, New York and Austin, Texas.

In his new role as president of Nexstar Digital, Raifman will be responsible for managing its day to day operations, including the development and implementation of business strategy, leading the integration of existing and recently acquired digital products under the Nexstar Digital brand.

The company says he will work with Nexstar Media Group’s executive management team to build out Nexstar’s Digital business by “identifying investment opportunities to enhance existing technology infrastructure, to capitalize on emerging market trends and to execute accretive transactions of new digital products that complement its core competencies and have high growth potential.”

In addition, the company said, he will oversee Nexstar Digital’s engineers, product developers and service/sales professionals, and will recruit and manage a team of brand, technology, finance, legal and human resources experts who will work in conjunction with Nexstar Broadcasting personnel to optimize local digital and mobile offerings across the company’s local media markets.

Commenting on the appointment, Sook said: “Greg’s wide range of expertise in the digital advertising and technology start-up sectors makes him ideally suited to lead Nexstar Digital and to build on the growth momentum of our expanding portfolio of innovative local digital marketing products, content monetization solutions and digital agency services. He brings outstanding leadership and entrepreneurial skills to Nexstar and a record of success in efficiently scaling advertising technology and services companies to a position of market leadership while accelerating revenue growth. I look forward to working directly with him as we execute our cohesive strategy to drive the next phase of growth for Nexstar Digital.”

Prior to assuming his new role at Nexstar, Raifman most recently was president and board member of the online advertising tech firm Rubicon Project, where he was responsible for overseeing the day-to-day operations of the global advertising leader, including revenue and business development, product, engineering, finance, legal, marketing, communications and strategy. In advance of assuming his new role with Nexstar, Raifman resigned as an officer but remains a member of the company’s board.

From 1998 to 2001, he was the founder, chairman and CEO of Mediaplex, a global advertising technology company he eventually took public that reached a post IPO valuation which exceeded $4 billion. In 2001, Mediaplex merged with ValueClick and Raifman remained on the board until mid-2002. After acquiring other industry related companies, the combined company known as Conversant was ultimately sold to Alliance Data Systems in 2014 for $2.3 billion.

Through his investment vehicles The Gekko Group, LLC & Gekko Holdings, LLC, Raifman has also been a very active seed investor, board member and board adviser to numerous early stage technology companies including LiveRail and PointBreak Ventures.

In 2006, Raifman founded Dragon Media Online, serves as its chairman and CEO. The company’s career advancement websites include Careers.org.

Raifman obtained his AB in economics and history with double honors from University of Michigan in 1981. He completed his J.D. in law from Georgetown University Law Center in 1984.