Geoff Schiller, former CRO at Vox Media, is set to become CEO of cinema ad network Screenvision.
The move marks Schiller’s first departure from the digital publishing industry in 25 years. Vox Media sold half the company — including the Vox Media podcast network and New York Magazine — to James Murdoch for a reported $300 million last week.
Schiller told Digiday the move wasn’t because he’s soured on digital publishing, but because he was drawn to leading Screenvision at an interesting time for the theater industry, as well as his personal passion for film, calling himself a “lifelong cinephile.” He will start the role on June 8.
“This is a chance to lead a scaled media platform at an important moment for the company and for the industry. The decision for me was entirely about the opportunity at Screenvision, and the long-term potential I see in the Screenvision business, as well as the category writ large,” he told Digiday.
In his new role, Schiller will focus on strengthening Screenvision’s position in cinema advertising and deepening relationships with clients. He said several industry tailwinds made him excited about the prospects: Gen Z audiences are returning to theaters and box office projections are showing positive signs of growth, fueled by a strong pipeline of films in the next few years, such as “Spider-Man: Brand New Day” and “Avengers: Doomsday” coming out later this year.
Movie theaters went through a crisis during the pandemic. People stopped going to cinemas, and movies became more available on streaming services. Overall movie theater attendance still lags behind pre-COVID years. But according to a recent Fandango study, Gen Z is now the most active cinema-going demographic. It found that 87% of Gen Z and 82% of millennials saw at least one movie in theaters in the past 12 months, compared with 70% of Gen X and 58% of baby boomers. Gen Z and millennials averaged about seven movie theater visits per year.
Movie theaters, Schiller noted, are one of the few places where young people are putting down their phones and consuming “non-skippable media… in front of a 100-foot screen.”
Schiller likened Screenvision to digital media publishers: It produces content in the form of an ad-supported pre-show called “Front + Center,” which includes trivia, games and behind-the-scenes movie clips. Screenvision operates on 14,000 screens (and 2,300 U.S. theaters), representing nearly half of cinema impressions, per Schiller. Ads come from brands across a range of categories, including pharma, auto and QSR, he added.
“My career has always been focused on helping brands connect with audiences in meaningful, high-quality environments, and with the fragmentation accelerating, environments with premium intention have become scarce,” Schiller said. “Cinema stands out very clearly as one of the few environments where audiences are present, they’re engaged, and they’re getting an experience they can’t get anywhere else… It’s still premium content [and] engaged audiences at the end of the day, just in a different format and a different form factor.”
Matt Prohaska, CEO and principal of Prohaska Consulting, said Schiller’s tenure in digital media and the relationships he’s built with advertisers and agencies make him the right fit for Screenvision, which he described as “a digitally-focused company that has been perceived by too many incorrectly to be legacy cinema or legacy linear, when in fact they are an addressable video publisher, just like many others.”
Schiller’s experience makes him a good candidate to better leverage Screenvision’s data assets, such as its first-party audience data and relationships with movie theaters, according to Prohaska. Screenvision is one of Prohaska’s clients.
Schiller became CRO at Vox Media in July 2023, overseeing all revenue for all its publications including New York magazine and Eater, shows, and podcasts. He centered Vox Media’s sales pitch on tentpole events, talent and content franchises, responsible for advertising and events revenue.
He previously served as global evp of commercial and sales strategy at Vice Media for a year, and was global CRO at Group Nine Media and PopSugar before that. Schiller also held various revenue and sales roles at Evolve Media, Hearst, People magazine and USA Today.
“Geoff is someone who has been both at legacy brands and challenger brands. Screenvision is actually both of those in a way to different constituencies,” Prohaska said. “Too many legacy and cultural challenges of the out-of-home industry is that they spent most of the last 50 years fighting with each other over 5% of ad spend… when their competition is actually Google, Meta and Amazon. Geoff knows that better than most.”
Schiller succeeds Jeff Howe, who has served as the company’s interim CEO since January 2026, when former CEO John Partilla stepped down. The company has over 150 employees.
As for the industry Schiller’s leaving behind, digital publishing is “like any other media industry,” where strong brands will continue to rise to the top at a time of fragmentation, he said.
“The consumer decides if they’re going to engage with a brand or not,” Schiller said. “There are strong products and not so strong products and the consumer decides which one is which.”
This story was updated to reflect Schiller did not oversee commerce or subscription revenue at Vox Media.
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