• by Erik Sass , June 3, 2010

Hearst Corporation, one of the nation's leading magazine publishers, has acquired iCrossing, a leading digital marketing company. Don Scales, the president and CEO of iCrossing, said he will continue at the company along with all senior management.

iCrossing was named OMMA magazine's Search Agency of the Year in 2009. Financial terms of the deal were not disclosed.

The deal positions Hearst as a major player in the digital marketing arena, and holds out the possibility of achieving synergies through the combination of iCrossing's capabilities with Hearst's growing online publishing portfolio in search and online marketing.

iCrossing's digital marketing services include planning and development for Web, email, mobile and social-media marketing; it also operates an extensive marketing platform offering services like bid management, SEO automation, display ad-serving and mobile advertising.

"Aligning with Hearst means a sharing of consumer insights, content, channel expertise and technology that will result in totally new approaches to both digital and integrated marketing," remarked Scales.

iCrossing already has established relationships with major brands, including Bank of America, Toyota, Travelocity and The Coca-Cola Company. It will continue to cultivate and acquire its own new clients, in addition to projects coordinated with Hearst.

Matthew Petersen, senior vice president of Hearst Magazines, will head a new line of business, Hearst Marketing Services, which will include oversight of iCrossing.

Petersen came to Hearst in March from Meredith, where he was senior vice president of Meredith Integrated Marketing. Over the last few years, Meredith acquired O'Grady Meyers, Genex, New Media Strategies and Big Communications to create an integrated marketing division.