Media People Podcast

Kevin Bartus is a terrible employee—those are his words, not mine. But that’s OK because he’s a very successful entrepreneur. Kevin is the President and CEO of Ideon Media—Canada’s largest digital rep firm, responsible for monetizing Canadian ad traffic for brands such as VICE Media and IGN, to name a few. Ideon also owns and operates several sites including SavvyMom, 29Secrets, and AmongMen. A Chicago native, Kevin was quite the academic in his youth. He found subjects like math easy, so it shouldn’t be a surprise that he graduated from both MIT and Harvard. He moved into consulting after university and then founded Blue Spark—a company building websites for TorStar and Rogers. Despite an exit and the chance to lead Rogers Media’s foray into digital advertising, Kevin had the itch get back out on his own. He saw the success Olive Media enjoyed in the rep space, and decided to emulate their business model with Ideon Media. **Subscribe to the Media People Newsletter** mediapeople.beehiiv.com/subscribe **