For the past 12 years’ media has been Mariano Nejamkis’s passion. As general manager of El Comercio, he’s taken a major Latin America news title and helped it transition from a print publication to a living digital hub. And at the upcoming Global Online Classifieds Summit, Nejamkis will share the secrets that have helped overcome the challenges traditional newspapers are facing while trying to transition into online classifieds.
In August 2016 Nejamkis made the trip from Buenos Aires to Lima to take up the role as general manager of El Comercio, a leading global newspaper founded in Peru in 1839 with a current daily circulation of 120,000.
He recalls how he was tasked with helping the migration of their classifieds businesses from print to digital.
“They had launched real estate, jobs and automotive online classifieds years ago, but didn’t know how to manage the challenges they represented,” he said. “As I had been working within this industry for the last 12 years, I was invited to join the group as general manager for all transactional services and Fintech.”
Helping businesses succeed in a highly competitive marketplace like media has been a big part of Nejamkis’s career. Originally starting out as an industrial engineer, in 2005 he took charge of DeRemate.com, an eBay-like business that serviced all Latin America, from México to Argentina, until it was sold to online marketplace Mercado Libre in 2008.
Nejamkis considers his time spent developing and expanding DeRemate.com and other online classifieds businesses to be the highlight of his career.
“The main shareholder was Diario La Nación, the oldest and most important newspaper in Argentina, and after selling DeRemate, we founded Dridco, a holding company within which we launch what became the most important online classifieds around Latin America: ZonaJobs (jobs), ZonaProp (real estate) and DeMotores (cars), plus other minor sites as ZonaCitas (dating),” he said. “We developed those businesses throughout Argentina, Chile, Colombia, México and Brazil until La Nación decided to sell them.”
But Nejamkis is excited about the work he’s doing now with El Comercio and says there are exciting things on the horizon for the company, although the details remain mysterious.
“Being in online classifieds and fintech companies is exciting by itself,” he muses. “Many things are changing in the group and I’m part of (and a catalyst of) this change.”
Attendees at the Global Online Classifieds Summit can hear Nejamkis speak about the challenges a traditional newspaper faces when it transitions into online classifieds and the challenges that exist in the Latin American marketplace.
Don’t miss Mariano at the Global Online Classifieds Summit in Miami. Register today.
