Digital Subscription Growth Manager

The Baltimore Sun is seeking a high-impact Digital Subscription Growth Manager. The Digital Subscription Growth Manager is responsible for driving acquisition, conversion, and retention of digital subscribers through data-driven, e-commerce-style strategies. This role will optimize the full subscriber journey from first touch to long-term retention by improving funnel performance, pricing strategy, and user experience across all digital platforms.

Essential Functions

Subscription Funnel Optimization:

• Own the end-to-end digital subscription funnel
• Landing pages → Paywall → Checkout → Onboarding → Retention
• Identify and fix drop-off points

E-Commerce & Conversion Strategy:

Apply e-commerce tactics:

• A/B testing offers (price points, trials, bundles)
• Cart/checkout optimization
• Upsell & cross-sell strategies (print digital bundles, premium tiers)
• Improve conversion rate average revenue per user (ARPU)

Data & Analytics Ownership:

Track KPIs like:

• Conversion rate
• Cost per acquisition (CPA)
• Churn rate
• Lifetime value (LTV)
• Leverage audience and performance data platforms to identify trends and generate insights.
• Utilize Google Analytics 4 (GA4), subscription analytics tools, and other reporting platforms to monitor user behavior, measure campaign performance, and optimize the digital subscription funnel.

Testing & Experimentation;

• Run continuous experiments:
• Messaging (value vs urgency vs local impact)
• Paywall rules (metered vs hard vs dynamic)
• Build a test-and-learn culture
• Evaluate and compare subscription offer performance and pricing strategies

Retention & Lifecycle Marketing:

• Reduce churn

Optimize:

• Onboarding journeys
• Engagement triggers
• Renewal messaging
• Partner with News & Marketing teams

Cross-Functional Collaboration with:

• Product (paywall UX changes)
• Marketing (campaigns acquisition channels)
• IT/Data (integrations, tracking)
• Act as the data bridge between teams that are focused on digital metrics such as News, Marketing, Sales, etc.

Education and Experience Requirements

• 5 years of experience in e-commerce, subscription businesses, or digital growth roles.
• Experience driving conversion rate optimization (CRO) and running A/B testing programs.
• Strong understanding of subscription or SaaS metrics and performance drivers.
• Proven ability to use and analyze data to identify opportunities and improve digital funnel performance.

Ideal Background: Experience in e-commerce environments such as Shopify or direct-to-consumer (DTC) brands. Background in subscription-based businesses including media, streaming, or SaaS. Familiarity with paywalls, membership models, or other subscription-based digital products.

Salary Range: $50,000 – $80,000

Individual compensation may vary from the target range based on several factors, including experience, internal pay equity, and other relevant business considerations.