For immediate release
Mon, February 24, 2014
(NYSE: SSP)
Adam Symson, senior vice president and chief digital officer for The E.W. Scripps Co., has been selected as the recipient of the 2014 Borrell Award of Merit.
The honor, also known as the Innovator’s Award, is bestowed on an executive who has taken an innovative and measurably successful path to help his or her local media company in its digital transformation. This year’s award will be presented March 4 at Borrell’s annual Local Online Advertising Conference in New York City.
“We’ve watched Scripps make remarkable strides in the past two years under Adam’s tutelage and acquire or build out some very impressive initiatives,” said Gordon Borrell, CEO of Borrell Associates. “They’re making investments, they’re trying some wildly innovating things with WCPO-TV in Cincinnati, and they’re hiring dozens of digital-only sales reps across all their 26 media markets. Adam has assembled an exceptionally bright team, and they certainly deserve credit too. But it’s clear that Adam is the digital gyroscope at Scripps.”
Scripps Digital drives the company’s focus on digital revenue, journalism, marketing, technology, and product development. As chief digital officer, Symson is responsible for developing the journalism and advertising products and services for digital-platform audiences and advertisers in the Scripps markets and overseeing national digital business, including Newsy and StormShield.
“Over the last several years under Adam’s leadership, we have reoriented the way we see the business,” said Rich Boehne, Scripps chairman, president and CEO. “Today we see ourselves as a consumer products company, focused equally on supporting both our audiences and our advertisers as they migrate onto digital platforms while just as aggressively building out entirely new and discreet digital businesses that represent the next season of evolution for Scripps.”
Symson started his career in radio at KGIL-AM 1260 in Los Angeles. He’s worked in various roles at Scripps TV stations before joining the company’s corporate operation in 2003 as director of investigations and special projects for the TV group. Prior to becoming chief digital officer, Symson was in charge of the TV division’s interactive businesses.
He serves on the boards of directors for Cincinnati Public Radio, Adath Israel, and the Scripps Howard Foundation.
The award will be presented on stage on Tuesday, March 4, at 12:20 p.m., during Borrell’s Local Online Advertising Conference at the Grand Hyatt in New York City. About 500 media executives are expected to be in attendance.
Past recipients are Kirk Davis, CEO of GateHouse Media (2013); Ezra Kucharz, president of CBS Local Media (2012); Clark Gilbert, CEO of Deseret Media (2011); and Colleen Brown, CEO of Fisher Broadcasting (2010).
For more information on the awards or Borrell Associates, visit www.borrellassociates.com or call 757-221-6641.