December 20, 2011 – USA TODAY Sports Media Group President Tom Beusse announced today that Mark Kortekaas has been named as the group’s senior vice president of digital. Kortekaas begins his new duties today.
The USA TODAY Sports Media Group, created in January 2011, encompasses all sports initiatives across USA TODAY, as well as Gannett’s 81 daily media properties, 23 broadcast television stations, HighSchoolSports.net, BNQT.com and MMAjunkie.com.
“Mark has unique, battle-tested experience in developing platforms that provide a first-classdigital offering for sports fans,” said Beusse. “He’s exactly the right person to help us build out a digital architecture that will present and deliver our content in the most engaging, user-friendly and relevant ways possible.”
A veteran of more than 20 years in digital multimedia, Kortekaas was most recently based in London with the BBC, where he served as general manager of its online technology group and, previously, as its controller for audio & music & mobile. Prior to that, he spent more than eight years as senior vice president and chief technology officer for CBS Interactive, where he was responsible for leading all technology aspects of consumer digital destinations including cbssports.com, cbsnews.com and cbs.com. He also helped develop and launch their hugely successful “March Madness on Demand” video platform for the NCAA men’s basketball tournament.
Before joining CBS, Kortekaas was senior vice president for technology at Sony Online Entertainment, and also served as director of technology at NBC, where he helped managed the development of NBC’s first online Olympics at nbcsports.com in conjunction with the 1996 Summer Olympics.
A native of Chicago, Kortekaas earned a masters degree from the Media Laboratory at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology, and a bachelor’s degree in fine arts from New York University.
USA TODAY is a multi-platform news and information media company. Founded in 1982, USA TODAY’s mission is to serve as a forum for better understanding and unity to help make the USA truly one nation. Today, through its newspaper, website and mobile platforms, USA TODAY connects readers and engages the national conversation. USA TODAY, the nation’s number one newspaper in print circulation with an average of nearly 1.8 million daily, and USATODAY.com, an award-winning newspaper website launched in 1995, reach a combined 5.4 million readers daily. USA TODAY is a leader in mobileapplications with more than ten million downloads on mobile devices. USA TODAY is owned by Gannett Co., Inc. (NYSE: GCI).
