There was a little buzz in the online newspaper world a few weeks back when interactive vice presidents from Belo, Wes Jackson, and Scripps, Bob Benz, announced they were resigning their positions for new challenges. Those challenges are now public in the form of Maroon Ventures, where Jackson and Benz will be joining founding partners Chris Tippie and Charity Huff, both of whom previously hailed from the local SEO firm WebVisible. Deeply involved in the Yahoo newspaper consortium, Maroon will be working with media companies and emerging technologies to develop new businesses in the local space. Press release follows after the jump….
Maroon Ventures Announces New Partners from Across the Local Media Industry
Crested Butte, Colorado – Maroon Ventures, a professional services firm that is playing a key role in helping 21 newspaper companies leverage their relationship with Yahoo! and HotJobs, announced Wednesday the addition of new partners with diverse local media backgrounds. Wesley A. Jackson and Robert Benz will join existing partners Christopher W. Tippie and Charity J. Huff in Maroon Ventures. The new partners each will be responsible for strategic ventures focused on identifying and building new technology and businesses.
Jackson joins Maroon Ventures after having served as corporate senior vice president for Belo Corp. and president/general manager of Belo Interactive Media. He was responsible for P&L, operations, strategy, national sales and product development for more than 30 Web sites. In addition, Jackson has represented Belo in the newspaper consortium’s strategic partnership with Yahoo!
Benz previously served as vice president of interactive media for E.W. Scripps Company’s newspaper division. Key achievements in his role at Scripps included the installation of content management systems, implementing extensive financial benchmarking, establishing an innovation fund and managing an interactive staff of 40 that handles ad serving, sales, operations, product management, search engine marketing and programming.
“Maroon Ventures was founded in 2006 to take venture capital and new technology development beyond the ideation phase to operational execution,†founding partner, Tippie said. “By bringing our deep, local media industry knowledge and operational expertise to bear on new opportunities, Maroon Ventures will create businesses that produce a high return for our partners and clients. Adding Wes and Bob to our team provides us with invaluable operational experience from corporate development to business execution.â€
About Maroon Ventures
Maroon Ventures is a professional services firm that connects emerging business opportunities with media companies to help them execute in local markets. Its members draw on extensive operational and strategic experience to drive innovation throughout the business lifecycle