The Kansas City Chiefs announced on Friday that the club has hired Mike Cukyne to serve as the team's Vice President of Content and Digital Operations.
"We are extremely excited to have Mike and his family join Chiefs Kingdom in this new and important role for our business," Chiefs President Mark Donovan said. "Mike's wealth of knowledge and expertise in the digital space, including production, content development and organizational management will provide us the ability to navigate the ever-evolving digital landscape. His intimate knowledge of the region makes him a valuable addition to our executive team and Chiefs Kingdom."
"I couldn't be more pleased to have this opportunity to work with the Kansas City Chiefs leadership team," Cukyne said. "I look forward to building and growing their already strong content and digital platforms."
In his position with the Chiefs, Cukyne will focus on the creation, distribution and monetization of short-form and long-form content on traditional, digital, social and over-the-top platforms, contributing directly to organizational revenue goals while adhering to and supporting the club's brand initiatives and objectives. He will direct and coordinate all digital, social, content production and game presentation efforts, establish a customer segmentation strategy and create, manage and package a full inventory of all advertising units associated with content on team-owned platforms.
Cukyne joins the Chiefs after eight years (2010-17) as part of the Meredith Corporation, a publicly held media and marketing services company headquartered in Des Moines, Iowa. Most recently, Cukyne served three years (2015-17) as Vice President and General Manager for KCTV, the Meredith-owned CBS affiliate in Kansas City. While with the station, he oversaw more than 150 employees who operated two full-service television stations, managed operational budgets, capital investment planning, market-share, ratings and recruitment, among other duties. Under his leadership, the station increased viewership and gained recognition as the most-watched late-night newscast in the market, winning a regional Edward R. Murrow Award in 2017 and being named the No. 1 major market television station by the Kansas Association of Broadcasters in 2015, 2016 and 2017.
Prior to his arrival at KCTV, Cukyne spent five years (2010-14) with Meredith, first as Vice President of Digital Sales (2010-12) and later as Senior Vice President of Digital Media (2012-14). In his roles, he managed and built best-in-class operational procedures and workflows for 17 television stations across the United States, focusing on in-house operations for advertising, content management systems, mobile platforms and inventory management.
Cukyne spent six years (2005-10) with the Belo Corporation at KMOV in St. Louis, Missouri, finishing his time there as General/National Sales Manager for the Dallas-based media company. He supervised and maintained multiple sales teams, including local, national and political sales, as well as automotive, new business and non-traditional revenue teams.
