Zack Kohn Baltimore-based, photography teacher, NPR supporter, and court watcher. Never talked to anyone at Kasowitz, Benson, Torres. All photos taken by me.
Overtime, the sports digital-media startup whose backers include NBA star Kevin Durant, has recruited its first chief content officer: Marc Kohn, previously head of programming for Barstool Sports and Turner Sports’ Bleacher Report.
Kohn’s hire by the year-and-half-old Brooklyn company, which has focused on covering high-school athletes and teams, is part of Overtime’s strategy to boost its longer-form content slate and expand distribution deals.
Other execs Overtime has hired in the past several weeks include Alex Grant, head of sales and brand partnerships, who’s a former Snap and Twitter exec; chief strategy officer Anis Rashid, formerly with WME Ventures and Goldman Sachs; and head of production Dave Zigerelli.
“As Overtime focuses on building the next great sports network, we are fortunate to bring on board folks like these, who have world-class experience but are still hungry and creative in reimagining how we cover sports,” co-founder and CEO Dan Porter said.
Kohn, in his new role, will have a broad purview that includes expanding Overtime’s roster of longer-form programming, inking new content-distribution deals, and looking at ways for the company to expand into covering college and pro sports. Prior to joining Barstool Sports in February 2017, he worked at Bleacher Report for five years as was one of its first employees working on video content for the site.
Overtime has focused on short-form content for Instagram, Snapchat and YouTube to cater to younger, digital-native sports fans. It has already launched several longer-form series, including “Overtime Challenge,” “Overtime All Access,” “The Book of Luther” and a series of videos featuring Kevin Durant.
Earlier this year Overtime announced $9.5 million in Series A funding, led by venture-capital firm Andreessen Horowitz with participation from Durant’s investment firm. Other investors include NBA star Kevin Durant, former NBA commissioner David Stern, Greycroft, Redpoint Ventures’ Geoff Yang and Fox Sports Regional Networks exec Michael Spirito.
Overtime was founded in the fall of 2016 by Dan Porter, a serial entrepreneur who previously served as WME’s head of digital, and Zack Weiner, a former collegiate chess champion who also previously worked at WME.
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