DIGITAL MEDIA

Men’s lifestyle brand and urban fashion icon Marc Ecko has secured the talents of former Blue Freeway executive Jason Jercinovic, to accelerate the digital opportunities for Ecko’s expanding media properties. Jercinovic, a New York native, took on the newly created role of vice president of content and production across the Complex Media Network earlier this year.

Complex Media is the publishing and new media division of Marc Ecko Enterprises which entered into a partnership with four blog-oriented websites to create the Complex Media Network, a vertical ad network pitching to the interests of hip men in the 18-35 demographic, late last year. The group’s dedicated digital division was launched in April led by co-CEO Mike Golden and Complex Publisher and co-CEO Rich Antoniello.

Jercinovic, landed what is arguably one of the coolest digital gigs around, via a fortuitous meeting with Complex Media while he was setting up the now defunct Blue Freeway North American presence. Complex Media is also a client of Blue Freeway subsidiary Massmedia using its Traction CRM tool. He is also a former colleague of CEO and chairman, Golden, who he reports to.

“I was offered an equity position and senior management role for an opportunity that was too good to refuse,” he told Digital Media.

The timing was even more fortuitous as he resigned a week before the Blue Freeway meltdown which led to the ousting of founder Richard Webb. Jercinovic says he is still surprised by the turn of events, particularly Webb¹s departure

but hopes the new custodians of the assets will “keep the dream alive”.

“Blue Freeway was built with some great, quality assets and even if there is mismanagement on a corporate level you can’t take that away,” he said.

In his new role, Jercinovic who is also the former head of Euro SCG 4D’s

Australian digital arm, is dealing with the being on the client side of the fence and the world of traditional and online publishing in a climate of rapid decline in media advertising spend.

He notes that despite the US¹s advanced position in digital adoption and marketing execution, a combination of factors such as the recession, the Olympics and the looming election mean that even the biggest marketers are freezing their advertising spend for at least the next quarter.

“The macro trend occurring now means that publishers are having a harder time in making money the shift occurring from traditional to digital is being accelerated by the higher costs of paper and printing and oil costs are making physical distribution more expensive. These significant pressures on margins mean that higher subscriptions are crucial to offset the rising costs,” he said.

He added that the recession in the US has hit the magazine industry with declines of 20-30% YTD on adsales and even publishers with significant digital properties are finding it hard to weather the storm. For Complex magazine, which has only been digital for a year and has just under 500,000 print subscribers, May was the tipping point in terms of more people visiting the mag online than having physical subscribers.

“Every dollar you lose on print you need $5 online, so you need to grow digital a lot larger and harder,” he said.

“In the current climate flat is the new up- if you are just even, you are winning,” he added.

But despite the industry gloom, Complex magazine remains the biggest revenue earner for the new media group, which includes a gaming division.

Complex magazine is in its sixth year but in the last year has diversified from a traditional publisher model to a media network aggregating “like minded eye balls” around young men¹s interest areas which includes 5 acquired sites or outsourced ad sales with a total of 13 online properties amassing 5.4 million monthly visitors. 20-30% of which are from outside of the US.

Under Jercinovic’s watch, the group is has secure a deal with the makers of TV show Dexter to create a serial killer inspired video game and will soon launch a global ad sponsored integrated mobile shopping guide, where retailers become affiliates. The model is expected to be launched into the Australian market also where Complex already has a string base and Ecko has a retail presence.

0 comments Leave a comment