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Send to friend"With the economy struggling, we believe now is the perfect time to introduce efficient advertising solutions. Small to medium businesses are looking for ways to save money. ... Radiant Markets will help them focus their advertising on solutions that drive demonstrable results."
Bob Benz, COO
Bob Benz, 46, is the chief operating officer of Radiant Markets, LLC. As COO, Benz works with Radiant's product partners and manages the operational issues related to providing effective interactive advertising solutions to SMBs.
On the water: Bob is a man of obsessions. After moving into a lakefront house on Lake Loudon in Knoxville, he quickly bought a canoe and started paddling. But it wasn't fast enough, so he upgraded to an 18-foot touring kayak and often can be seen jockeying with the Vol Navy on game days, trying to stay in his boat. His latest obsession? Radiant Markets ...Before forming Radiant Markets with CEO Wesley A. Jackson, Benz was a partner in Maroon Ventures, LLC, which helped launch Radiant.
"Maroon Ventures was designed to connect traditional media with start-ups and interactive strategies," says Benz. "It was the perfect segue from my role in a traditional media company to working in a pure start-up."
Benz brings more than 20 years of local media experience to his role as COO of Radiant Markets. Before his tenure with Maroon Ventures, he was a senior executive at The E.W. Scripps Co., where he served as VP/interactive. In that role, he oversaw strategic, financial and operational activities for the company's daily newspapers.
Benz worked at Scripps in various capacities since 1985, starting his career as a journalist and migrating to interactive initiatives after helping to launch the Rocky Mountain News Web site in 1995. The highlight of his journalism career came in 1994, when he was an editor on "The Plutonium Experiment," which earned a Pulitzer Prize for reporter Eileen Welsome and The Albuquerque Tribune.
During the early stages of his interactive career, Benz helped launch Web sites at Scripps newspapers and television stations. In 2000, he began to focus solely on the newspapers, which achieved profitability in 2002 and grew revenue at a 32 percent compound annual growth rate from 2002-2007.
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. He also was one of several newspaper industry executives who negotiated an extensive partnership with Yahoo!
Benz earned a BA in journalism/English from Edinboro University of Pennsylvania and holds a master's in English literature from the University of Alabama at Birmingham. Key board seats he holds or has held include: the Newspaper Association of America's New Media Federation, Ohio University Scripps School of Journalism Advisory Board, the Scripps Howard Foundation and PowerOne Media.
Benz is married to Lara Edge, VP/Editorial for Scripps Networks online. They live in Knoxville, Tenn., with four dogs and an angry cockatoo.
Bob Benz can be reached via email or 865.604.7731.
On the water: Bob is a man of obsessions. After moving into a lakefront house on Lake Loudon in Knoxville, he quickly bought a canoe and started paddling. But it wasn't fast enough, so he upgraded to an 18-foot touring kayak and often can be seen jockeying with the Vol Navy on game days, trying to stay in his boat. His latest obsession? Radiant Markets ...Before forming Radiant Markets with CEO Wesley A. Jackson, Benz was a partner in Maroon Ventures, LLC, which helped launch Radiant.
"Maroon Ventures was designed to connect traditional media with start-ups and interactive strategies," says Benz. "It was the perfect segue from my role in a traditional media company to working in a pure start-up."
Benz brings more than 20 years of local media experience to his role as COO of Radiant Markets. Before his tenure with Maroon Ventures, he was a senior executive at The E.W. Scripps Co., where he served as VP/interactive. In that role, he oversaw strategic, financial and operational activities for the company's daily newspapers.
Benz worked at Scripps in various capacities since 1985, starting his career as a journalist and migrating to interactive initiatives after helping to launch the Rocky Mountain News Web site in 1995. The highlight of his journalism career came in 1994, when he was an editor on "The Plutonium Experiment," which earned a Pulitzer Prize for reporter Eileen Welsome and The Albuquerque Tribune.
During the early stages of his interactive career, Benz helped launch Web sites at Scripps newspapers and television stations. In 2000, he began to focus solely on the newspapers, which achieved profitability in 2002 and grew revenue at a 32 percent compound annual growth rate from 2002-2007.
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. He also was one of several newspaper industry executives who negotiated an extensive partnership with Yahoo!
Benz earned a BA in journalism/English from Edinboro University of Pennsylvania and holds a master's in English literature from the University of Alabama at Birmingham. Key board seats he holds or has held include: the Newspaper Association of America's New Media Federation, Ohio University Scripps School of Journalism Advisory Board, the Scripps Howard Foundation and PowerOne Media.
Benz is married to Lara Edge, VP/Editorial for Scripps Networks online. They live in Knoxville, Tenn., with four dogs and an angry cockatoo.
Bob Benz can be reached via email or 865.604.7731.