Starcom Names Top Media Buyer, Top Dog: Muszynksi Becomes CEO

Starcom USA Monday named John Muszynski, the longtime head of its national broadcast buying operations, CEO of the agency, joining the ranks of Group M's Irwin Gotlieb, MindShare's Marc Goldstein, PHD's Steve Grubbs and MediaCom's Jon Mandel, as network TV buyers to helm a media agency.

While Muszynski's roots are in planning and strategy, he was named head of Starcom's broadcast buying group in 1999, and is known in the industry as one of the most powerful TV buyers. His most recent title was managing director-investment and operations, where he also oversaw print deals and other operations.

The elevation of yet another TV buying executive struck one observer as an interesting trend and a possible division within the media agency business.

"Clearly, when the media agencies first unbundled and consolidated, it was all about buying bulk GRPs and who could buy them cheaper and more efficiently. And if you looked at the management teams that were put in place it was clearly defined that way. But now the emphasis seems to be on planning, strategy and communications planning, so you'd think you'd see another type of manager rising to the top," says Mike Lotito, a long-time agency media chief and founder of Media IQ, the New York-based company that evaluates the performance of media agencies for advertisers.

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Lotito noted that there seems to be a split between media agencies headed by former TV buyers like Muszynski and others like Carat, MediaVest, Initiative Media, Zenith Media, Optimedia, and PHD, which are headed by former strategy and planning executives. OMD is headed by Joe Uva, a long-time TV sales executive.

"I'm not sure what this says," notes Lotito, but clients have been saying what they really want is strategy. It could be that in the end, they trust the people who handle their money."

While Muszynski runs Starcom USA, he reports to Starcom MediaVest Group chiefs Renetta McCann and Jack Klues who both come out of planning backgrounds. Moreover, Starcom already is regarded as one of the most strategic media services agencies, handling Procter & Gamble's communications planning account.

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