Advertising Sales Manager

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

Cambridge 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 Day here. 

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

• 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