New York -- New Cabletelevision Advertising Bureau
executive Jerry Dominus -- a veteran of both the buying and selling sides of broadcast
television -- plans to promote electronic data interchange in his new high-profile
cable-industry job.
Named last week as vice president of network sales and
marketing effective May 17, Dominus replaces Don Stump, who is leaving for personal
reasons. Stump, however, will assist in the transition by staying at the CAB through June.
A key long-term aim, Dominus said last week, will be to
work toward greater implementation of EDI on both the network and advertiser-agency sides.
That will lead to faster payment and greater use of network cable by advertisers, he
added.
Dominus -- recalling that EDI was one of his focuses in the
past, when he was chairman of the American Association of Advertising Agencies' TV
committee -- said there was still "no standardization on the agency side," since
some shops use proprietary systems and others use syndicated EDI systems.
But his first priority at the CAB will be "to get my
Rolodex out and talk to my constituency at the cable networks about what theythink
I ought to be doing," he said. It's too soon to be more specific, he added.
Despite his considerable broadcast background, Dominus is
no stranger to cable. He spent the past couple of years on the cable side in various
capacities at Cablevision Systems Corp.
In 1997 and 1998, Dominus was an ad-sales consultant to
Cablevision subsidiary Rainbow Media Holdings Inc.'s American Movie Classics and
Romance Classics networks.
Since last fall, his focus became more local, as he
consulted for Cablevision's newly launched MSG Metro Channels in the New York market.
His function there was "more on getting their sales operation up and running than on
seeing it through," he said.
Dominus also bought network-cable time as senior partner
and director of national broadcast at ad agency J. Walter Thompson Co. from 1991 through
1996.
With the primetime upfront marketplace approaching, Fox
Broadcasting Co. launched an anti-cable presentation last month in the hopes of offsetting
the CAB's relentless updates on growing cable ratings and eroding broadcast ratings.
"I can understand [Fox's] frustration," said
Dominus, who spent 26 years at CBS before joining JWT. "But it's not the CAB:
It's the reality of the audiences. It's in the numbers, not in who tells
it."
