Nexstar Announces New Sales Leadership and Ad Sales Structure

By Kevin Eck 

Nexstar Media Group said it’s creating a new 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.”

The new leadership team will consist of recently appointed chief revenue officer, Michael Strober, who will be joined by Todd Braverman, as executive vice president and head of national sales, Lori Tavoularis, who has been appointed chief business officer and Brad Epperson, who has been appointed executive vice president of platform operations & technology.

“I am delighted to have Todd, Brad, and Lori join me as we transform Nexstar’s go-to-market strategy,” said Strober. “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.”

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Nexstar’s media properties include 200 owned or partner stations in 116 markets reaching 212 million people; The CW Network, NewsNation, Antenna TV and Rewind TV, multicast networks and digital news and information properties such as 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 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.”

Braverman was previously svp of Agency Sales at Warner Bros. Discovery and was 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.

Epperson was previously svp of business operations and services at NBCUniversal and was 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, Mr. Epperson led a sales team of 400 in more than 20 U.S. states and countries around the world.

As chief revenue officer and evp of 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  svp of Digital Revenue and Operations, for Tribune Publishing, and Head of Supply for the Global Advertising Business at Rakuten, Inc.

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