For Immediate Release
September 3, 2008
Explosive growth at the Ruxton Media Group continued this week as six new publications joined the fold and industry veteran Yolanda Luszcz was promoted to head the national advertising agency’s burgeoning digital network.
Luszcz first joined Ruxton in 2005 after an extensive international marketing career that included multimedia and multicultural marketing positions with CNN International, YAR Communications and KBA Marketing Group (now DraftFCB). In her new role as senior vice president of digital sales, she will be charged with overseeing the thriving Ruxton Digital Media Network (RDMN).
“We are excited to have Yolanda head up our digital sales and marketing efforts and to support both senior management, sales, and account management teams,” said Joe Larkin, senior vice president of the Ruxton Group.
“I’m happy and honored to be a part of this growth,” said Luszcz. “Ruxton’s online sales have been exponential the past couple of years and a clear confirmation of projections that U.S. online advertising spending will exceed $25 billion by the year 2010. With this momentum, we are furiously gearing up with a slew of new online properties, packages, products and customized offerings for our client base.”
Larkin noted that the rapid expansion of Ruxton’s digital network and online sales operations is made possible by the agency’s strong backroom team, based in Phoenix and headed up by national operations director Ronni Gaun. A sixteen-year veteran of Ruxton parent company Village Voice Media (VVM), Gaun has spent the past twelve years with Ruxton and has been instrumental in growing its digital network sales operations.
And Larkin announced that Ruxton is positioning itself for still more growth in 2009 by adding two new multi-platform sales positions.
“We are currently looking to hire for our New York office and a new Ruxton office in Atlanta,” he said.
Those new hires reflect growing national demand for Ruxton’s expanded media platform. In August alone, six publications announced they were joining the agency’s roster. The Shepherd Express in Milwaukee, the Memphis Flyer and Gambit Weekly in New Orleans have all chosen Ruxton to represent them for national sales in both print and digital mediums.
This brings the number of publications that Ruxton represents in both platforms to a total of 50, including award-winning newspapers and websites in every Top 20 U.S. market.
In addition, Boise Weekly, Seven Days of Burlington, Vt., and Isthmus in Madison, Wisc., have joined the RDMN for non-exclusive representation of their digital products.
“With this strong platform of properties and our expanded and strengthened management team, we fully expect Ruxton to be a major player in the national digital arena,” said Scott Tobias, president and chief operating officer of VVM. “Yolanda brings great experience and great passion to our team.”
As part of its effort to encourage digital sales innovations, Ruxton also will conduct the first election of representatives to the RDMN’s Publishers Advisory Committee (PAC) the week of September 15.
The PAC was formed to ensure that Ruxton’s publisher partners are fully vested in the rapidly changing world of digital marketing and advertising. The first meeting of the PAC will take place October 23 in Houston.
“We are very excited and optimistic about the digital future of our industry,” said Scott Spear, executive vice president of VVM and interim chairperson of the eight-member PAC.
“The standards and practices Ruxton has established will be examined, amended and updated with input from the PAC in order to keep Ruxton and its partner publishers at the forefront of the digital arena.”
Contact:
Joe Larkin
Senior Vice President
The Ruxton Media Group
602-229-8452
joe.larkin (at) ruxton.com
