Nexstar Broadcasting Appoints Julie Zoumbaris as Vice President and General Manager of its Broadcast and Digital Operations in Erie, PA

General Management, Sales, and Marketing Executive with More Than 30 Years of Local Broadcasting Experience to Lead WJET-TV and yourerie.com

ERIE, PA and IRVING, TX (September 29, 2020) – Nexstar Broadcasting, Inc., a wholly owned subsidiary of Nexstar Media Group, Inc. (Nasdaq: NXST), announced today that it has appointed Julie Zoumbaris as Vice President and General Manager of its broadcast and digital operations in Erie, PA (DMA #152), overseeing WJET-TV (ABC), www.yourerie.com, and their related mobile and social media channels.  Ms. Zoumbaris will also oversee Nexstar’s relationship with Mission Broadcasting’s WFXP-TV (FOX) under a grandfathered time brokerage agreement.  She will assume her new responsibilities immediately and report to Theresa Underwood, Senior Vice President and Regional Manager for Nexstar Broadcasting.

Ms. Zoumbaris brings more than 30 years of broadcast management leadership, sales, and marketing experience to her new role at Nexstar.  Throughout her career, she has consistently demonstrated the ability to grow revenue and profitability by identifying and cultivating accretive non-traditional revenue streams through a variety of innovative cross-platform marketing offerings and sponsorship opportunities for local and national advertisers.  In 2018, she was named Vice President and General Manager of WNEM-TV (CBS), serving the Flint/Saginaw/Bay City, MI, area (DMA #77), responsible for the long-term strategy and day-to-day operations of the station’s broadcasting, mobile, and digital platforms.  Ms. Zoumbaris started her career at WNEM-TV as an account executive in 1988 and rose through the sales department to become WNEM-TV’s General Sales Manager in 1999.

As WNEM-TV’s General Manager, Ms. Zoumbaris and her team transformed the station into a local news powerhouse, delivering consistent news ratings growth across all time periods and becoming Flint/Saginaw/Bay City’s #1 source for local news.  She also helped create and launch WNEM-TV’s digital content center, which developed local enterprise content and resulted in significant growth in users and revenue across its digital and social media platforms.  Under Ms. Zoumbaris’ leadership, WNEM-TV expanded a variety of unique sponsorship opportunities for local businesses, including “Aging In Style,” a collection of unique content on multiple platforms aimed at baby-boomers, and “Friday Night Lights,” which focused on the area’s high school football teams.
Prior to leading the operations at WNEM-TV, Ms. Zoumbaris held a variety of sales and marketing roles of increasing responsibility, serving as Director of Sales for WRTV-TV (ABC) in Indianapolis, IN, from 2014 to 2018.  During her tenure, Ms. Zoumbaris and the sales team set broadcast and digital sales records for station advertising connected to the iconic Indianapolis 500 and worked with local businesses to expand several highly-successful community partnerships, including “Toys for Tots” and  “The Jefferson Awards,” recognizing outstanding citizens in the local community.  She also helped launch the award-winning “Nurses Among Us,” which recognized local healthcare heroes.  Previous to WRTV-TV, Ms. Zoumbaris held sales management roles at WISH-TV/WNDY-TV in Indianapolis, where she launched “Indy Style,” the market’s first local lifestyle program, which generated more than $1 million in sales revenue in its first year.
“Julie is an accomplished broadcast, sales and marketing executive with an impressive career spanning more than 30 years,” said Ms. Underwood.  “During her years as a general manager and before that as a local broadcast sales leader, Julie delivered exceptional results—expanding locally-produced content, developing a broad array of successful digital marketing strategies, delivering unparalleled multi-platform solutions for marketing and advertising clients, and cultivating strong partnerships with local businesses and community organizations.  Julie is the ideal executive to assume responsibility for our broadcast and digital operations in Erie, overseeing WJET-TV, www.yourerie.com, and our alliance with Mission Broadcasting and WFXP-TV.  Her leadership skillset will be a true asset to the Erie operational team and the Nexstar family of stations, and we greatly look forward to working with Julie in her new role.”

“I am extremely pleased to be assuming leadership of Nexstar’s broadcasting and digital operations in Erie,” said Ms. Zoumbaris.  “Much like the outstanding legacy operations where I have worked, for more than fifty years WJET-TV has provided outstanding service to the viewers and advertisers of Erie and the surrounding area, thanks to its talented and dedicated staff and Nexstar’s ongoing commitment to hyper-local content and the unique and customized advertising and marketing solutions we offer.  This combination creates a distinct advantage for WJET-TV and its digital and mobile platforms.  I am confident that my broadcast experiences have well-prepared me to take on this new role and I am looking forward to assuming my new duties.”

Ms. Zoumbaris received her bachelor’s degree in communications from Miami University in Ohio.  She has been very involved in communities in which she has lived and worked, serving most recently as a trustee for the Downtown Saginaw Association, and volunteering her time and effort with the Community Action Committee of Saginaw and the Zion Evangelical Church and Rotary.  She and her husband, Scot, have been married 28 years and have three adult children, Ashley, Alex, and Christian.  Ms. Zoumbaris and her husband will be immediately relocating to the Erie area.

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About Nexstar Media Group, Inc.
Nexstar Media Group is a leading diversified media company that leverages localism to bring new services and value to consumers and advertisers through its traditional media, digital and mobile media platforms. Nexstar owns, operates, programs, or provides sales and other services to 197 television stations and related digital multicast signals reaching 115 markets or approximately 39% of all U.S. television households (reflecting the FCC’s UHF discount). Nexstar’s portfolio includes primary affiliates of NBC, CBS, ABC, FOX, MyNetworkTV and The CW. Nexstar’s community portal websites offer additional hyper-local content and verticals for consumers and advertisers, allowing audiences to choose where, when and how they access content while creating new revenue opportunities. Nexstar also owns WGN America, a growing national general entertainment cable network and a 31.3% ownership stake in TV Food Network, a top tier cable asset.  For more information please visit www.nexstar.tv.

Media Contacts:
Theresa Underwood
SVP/Regional Manager
Nexstar Broadcasting Group, Inc.
315/446-9999 or tunderwood@nexstar.tv

Gary Weitman
EVP & Chief Communications Officer
312/222-3394 or gweitman@nexstar.tv

Investor Contacts:
Joe Jaffoni or Jennifer Neuman
JCIR
212/835-8500 or nxst@jcir.com

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