Hitviews was founded by tenured media executives, marketing, PR and advertising professionals, and online video stars themselves.

Walter Sabo, Chief Executive Officer

walter@hitviews.com
646-722-8166

Mr. Sabo is the Founder and creator of the business concept. He is an experienced leader of new organizations. In 1984 he started a Manhattan based company called Sabo Media that provides content and management strategies to some of the most successful media conglomerates in the world. At Sirius Satellite radio, he assembled the programming team and helped to manage them on a daily basis. His association with Sirius spans more than eight years.

Prior to starting Sabo Media, Walter was Vice President in charge of the ABC Radio Networks and was responsible for almost 2000 network affiliated stations and managed a staff of 300 people. His job focused on the acquisition and management of creative talent. At NBC, under Fred Silverman, he was Executive Vice President of NBC-owned FM radio stations. Two formats his team created, Adult Contemporary and Urban, have become financial backbones of American radio programming. They were developed as the result of Mr. Sabo's identifying key demographics, music preference trends and assembling the right team.

Mr. Sabo's expertise is discovering, managing and monetizing extraordinary talent.

Caitlin Hill, Chief Creative Officer

caitlin@hitviews.com
877-HITVIEWS

To attract and oversee the WebStars, we have hired one of the most successful WebStars. Online she is known as TheHill88. Her audience ratings are impressive. One of her videos, featuring her "almost singing", has racked up over 4,000,000 views.

An Australian, Caitlin is recognized internationally as an Internet video personality. She understands all aspects of user-created content, including methods of community building and identifying which video artists are recruitable and which are marketable. She has been featured on, ABC News New York, Australia's version of “60 MINUTES”, Current Affair, Sydney Tonight and in numerous newspaper articles. She won the lifetime achievement award from The National Arts Club, the first for an online talent. Other recipients include IM Pei, Tennessee Williams and Ted Kennedy. Caitlin is an equity holder in the company and has signed a multi-year contract. She has an 0-1 performer’s visa, the first given to a WebStar by the US Government.

Jake Fogelnest, VP Talent

jake@hitviews.com
646-722-8157

Jake Fogelnest created SQUiRT TV, a mid 90’s public access television series hosted from his Manhattan bedroom when he was just fifteen-years-old.  SQUiRT TV quickly became a cult success in New York, moving from its original public access home, to a national audience on MTV.

Fogelnest regularly contributed jokes to Weekend Update on Saturday Night Live, He’s written for magazine such as Spin, Ray Gun, Alternative Press, Rolling Stone and has appeared in the Say Something Funny section of The Onion.  Jake’s appeared on The Jon Stewart Show, Howard Stern and Late Night With Conan O’Brien.  

He returned to MTV as the Star and Co-Executive Producer of Ten Years Later, a half-hour scripted comedy based on his “life after SQUiRT TV.”  Jake served as assistant director for Sarah Silverman's one-woman show Jesus Is Magic at Joe's Pub. He's worked on tour with the Upright Citizens Brigade, and has developed numerous comedy projects at their downtown New York City theatre. There he co-directed (with SNL's Amy Poehler) the two-person show Eye Candy, which was selected for the 2002 HBO US Comedy Arts Festival. Fogelnest's most acclaimed UCB production was George Bush Is a Motherf&%*er, which was produced by Adam McKay.  In 2004, he won a New York City A.I.R. Award for hosting the "Top 92 Worst Xmas Songs of All-Time" on the 92.3 K-Rock.  Today, Fogelnest is a regular commentator on VH1’s “I Love The…” series and hosts a daily indie rock radio show on Sirius XM from 6:00 AM to 12:00 PM EST on Sirius XMU, (Sirius Channel 26, XM Channel 43). 

Susan Gold, Talent Relations & Business Development, West Coast

susan@hitviews.com
323-839-8550

Susan Gold got her basic combat boot training at top talent agency, ICM in New York City.  She quickly moved on to form her own talent brokerage firm, Celebrity Talent, providing celebrities, athletes and entertainers for endorsements, promotions and events.  Applying her skills directly to television programming, she began providing celebrity talent for such broadcast and cable networks as NBC, BRAVO, VH-1, A&E, IFC and CNBC, among others.

In a similar fashion, Susan put together a highly-successful celebrity campaign for America’s Talking, which impressed then-prexy Roger Ailes so much that he invited her to become a producer.  Ailes eventually enlisted Susan’s expertise in launching the groundbreaking and incredibly successful Fox News Channel. While there, Susan created a weekly film review for FNC that was picked up nationally by Fox stations throughout the country. 

Susan has provided talent for the syndicated talk variety strip, “Arthel & Fred;” field produced A-list talent interviews and segments for star-focused series on AMC, BRAVO and the Sundance Channel; and served as head of development at SOS Multimedia, producing such high-profile events as the Closing Night of the Houston Astrodome and Martina McBride’s Christmas tour.  Susan was a show runner of the AMC original series “Sunday Morning Shootout,” overseeing all talent booking, execution and content. 

Most recently, Susan delivered A-list talent for William Shatner’s Bio Channel talk show, attached Fran Drescher to a reality format piloting with A&E and is in development with Patti Lupone, Courtney Love and Mackenzie Phillips in the reality television arena.

On a personal level, Susan has the distinction of placing third in her age group in the treacherous ‘Escape from Alcatraz’ triathlon and placed first of forty-four in her division for her final triathlon. She swims with a southern California masters team and practices Bikram yoga.

Sam Levine, VP Business Development

sam@hitviews.com
323-556-0659

Sam Levine’s media experience crosses platforms, formats and business models making him the entertainment jack of all trades.  As new media and online video evolve in the marketplace, Sam’s diverse background make him uniquely qualified to champion Hitviews as the VP of business development.  

Sam cut his teeth in journalism as a feature segment producer at WNBC in New York City before honing his development skills as a writer and independent development executive.  Since moving to Los Angeles in 2000, Sam has crafted features, television, and new media projects for companies like Sony, New Line, Storyopolis, Lionsgate and the Motion Picture Corporation of America.

Career highlights include producing the first live broadcast from an airplane in television history with KTLA and helping develop and write all the content for Fred Silverman's innovative interactive television network, ConneXions.  Working closely with Wall Street and White House executive business coach, Sarano Kelley, Sam helped Game Interactive (SKI) intellectual technologies develop and execute a vertically integrated media plan.

As a consultant, Sam worked with the World Extreme Fighting mixed martial arts organization to package and distribute their library of content.  He also helped produce multiple events around the country, including the first professionally sanctioned women's match in the United States which featured the first live, third-window worldwide broadcast, available to approximately 1.6 billion people.

Sam's education began at Washington and Lee University and Tel Aviv University before he graduated from New York University with a BA in Broadcasting.