Former The Onion Executive to Head Sales, Yield and New Branded Content

Ranker continues to bolster its impressive talent roster with the addition of veteran digital publishing executive Kurt Mueller. In the newly created role of Chief Revenue Officer, Mueller will lead all sales, oversee new branded content, data offerings and yield for the company.

“Ranker has continued to grow revenues annually while maintaining strong profit margins,” said Clark Benson, CEO and Founder of Ranker. “As Ranker’s talented sellers doubled our direct-sold ad revenues from 2021 to 2022, it was clearly time to bring in our first ever CRO. We are super excited to be working with an experienced, proven executive like Kurt to shepherd our unique offerings and proprietary data.”

“After getting to know Clark and the impressive team here at Ranker, it was refreshing to see a digital publisher leaning into innovation and growing the right way. I feel incredibly fortunate to be part of this company,” added Mueller.

Kurt Mueller is the former Chief Operating Officer of The Onion. At The Onion, Kurt was responsible for leading the pivot of their business from print to digital, scaling the operation for growth and developing new digital revenue streams, including the content services business, Onion Labs. In the wake of this growth and transformation, The Onion was acquired by Fusion Media Group (FMG) which combined The Onion, the former Gawker properties, and The Root. At FMG, Mueller led the combined sales entity and branded content studios, once again redefining the business model, building the go-to market strategy, and scaling all aspects of the business, resulting in growth. After spending the better part of a decade at Onion Inc and Fusion Media Group, Kurt moved on to work as the Chief Operating Officer at Inkshares.

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Mueller lives in Chicago, the greatest city in the world. He has a BA from WMU and an MBA from the University of Notre Dame. Mueller will be based out of Chicago.

Ranker is the leader in fan-powered rankings on just about everything. Whatever the topic – TV, movies, video games, sports, brands, food – Ranker puts the vote into the hands of millions rather than a few critics to answer the questions we are most passionate about. Over 1.2 billion votes now power Ranker Insights, a treasure trove of psychographic correlation data that delivers personalized consumer recommendations (“if you like X, you’ll also like Y, Z”) and audience insights to journalists, marketers, studios and platforms seeking a deeper understanding of consumer tastes and preferences. Launched in 2020 and powered by Ranker Insights, Watchworthy is the only statistically relevant, crowd-sourced TV recommendation app available to consumers. Ranker is listed on 2020’s Inc. 5000 and Inc. 5000: California Series; Deloitte’s 2019 Technology Fast 500; Built In LA’s Top 50 Mid-Sized Companies To Work For in 2020 and 2021; and on Fast Company’s World’s Most Innovative Companies for 2021 (No. 5). Watchworthy was a 2022 Webby nominee for both Best Entertainment App and Best Mobile User Experience. Ranker is headquartered in Los Angeles and has over 125 employees.

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