Position: Advertising Manager/Lead
Organization: Cambridge News Inc. (publisher of Cambridge Day and The Week by Cambridge Day)
Time Commitment: Part-time, approximately 20 hours per week
Reports to: President
Compensation: $30/hr advance on 15% commission on display ads and 2.5% commission on legal ads
Location: Cambridge, MA
Contact:publisher@cambridgeday.com with CV & Cover Letter
Role OverviewCambridge News Inc. seeks an Advertising Lead to manage and grow advertising revenue for Cambridge Day, a widely read nonprofit local newspaper serving Cambridge and surrounding communities.
Cambridge Day is Cambridge’s go-to source for independent, local news in Cambridge, Massachusetts. We have a website that is updated daily, a weekly newsletter and a weekly print edition. Readers are highly engaged: 1.1million unique readers visited our website last year, our email newsletter reaches 8,500+ people every week with a 48% open rate and 5,000 print copies are distributed throughout the city. Cambridge has an unusually large business community as a source for ads. Read more about Cambridge Dayhere.
The Advertising Lead is responsible for driving display and legal advertising sales, managing advertiser relationships, and building a sustainable, repeatable sales playbook and pipeline. They will engage with local and regional businesses & government to build-long term relationships with potential ad buyers.
Key Responsibilities
Advertising Sales and Customer Relationship Management
- Sell digital and print display advertising to local and regional businesses, institutions, and organizations
- Manage and grow legal notice advertising (public notices, zoning, estate notices) - engaging with local City, State, and other governmental agencies.
- Develop and execute outreach strategies to prospective advertisers - emails, phone, in-person. This type of sales requires extensive in-person engagement (knocking on doors, going in cold and pitching), emails/phone will not be enough.
- Assist in ads coming from Corporate Sponsorship arrangements
- Negotiate placements and contract terms
- Report back ad engagement/performance to buyers
- Take part in team coordination/brainstorming events
- Work with members of the Board of Director for Corporate Sponsorships
Advertising Operations
- Maintain CRM - keep progress up-to-date in the system for reporting/organizational purposes
- Maintain media guide
- Post ads on website (Wordpress), insert into newsletter templates (Mailchimp)
- Invoice customers
- Coordinate with ad designer if customers do not have their own ad designs.
Community & Market Engagement
- Represent Cambridge Day within the local business, legal, and civic community
- Identify emerging advertising opportunities aligned with community events and readership trends
- Maintain a strong understanding of Cambridge and Somerville business ecosystems
Qualifications & Experience- A strong interest in the Cambridge/Somerville community
- Proven experience in advertising sales, marketing media sales, or business development (local or regional media experience preferred but not required)
- Comfortable selling to small businesses, professionals, and institutions
- Strong communication and relationship-building skills
- Organized and self-directed/self-motivated, with the ability to manage multiple accounts independently
- Familiarity with digital advertising formats and performance metrics
- Experience with legal or public notice advertising is a plus, but not required
Goals:
- Grow display advertising revenue to >$300,000/yr run-rate by end of 2026
- Grow legal advertising revenue to >$100,000/yr run-rate by end of 2026
