Overview

 The Audience Development Specialist will manage all audience development activities, expense and revenue for multiple titles (Chicago and Naperville magazines). This position manages all aspects of circulation, with an emphasis on improving current processes and efficiencies for multiple titles, whether paid, free, controlled, or requested. Responsibilities include development and execution of circulation and marketing strategies for magazine products; building relationships with key retail partners to maintain/grow sales and improve service to retail locations; defining and maintaining budgets; producing acquisition and retention campaigns, and analyzing results to enable forecasting. Manages personnel. Reports directly to the Director of Audience and Consumer Revenue.

Responsibilities

• Own, develop, and present campaign strategies, successes, and opportunities to senior management; develop testing plans including: new creative, pricing, premium and effort sequence.
• Responsible for promotion results directly related to producing the revenue streams of multiple publications.
• Create pricing and marketing strategies that increases retention; create, execute, and monitor all marketing initiatives for direct-to-publisher campaigns and other new acquisition programs.
• Develop marketing strategies to increase circulation of home delivery subscribers.
• Utilize multiple channels including direct mail, email, online and broadcast media, billing statements and affiliate marketing to maintain revenue.
• Interact with multiple organizational facets to maximize marketing opportunities.
• Develop forecasting through maintaining rate base detail: updating circulation growth and revenue response and lapse rates, then communicate variances to the Director with suggestions for results.
• Provides comprehensive competitive analysis of the market on an ongoing basis. Tracks and reports market changes in the subscriber file and among newsstand retailers/wholesalers.
• Oversees direct marketing list acquisition: prepares seed files, orders files for direct mail promotions, directs merge/purge transactions, and analyzes list performance.
• Fulfillment management includes: reviewing the master circulation schedule and renewal, invoicing and holiday promotion grids, monitoring and reporting on customer service activities, managing up-sell and cross-sell subscription programs, communication with the fulfillment house, and ensuring accuracy of data between fulfillment and reporting systems.
• Manage web subscription sales including: approving offers, web ad development, monitoring sites, updating site creative layout and information, monitoring sales revenue and reporting results.
• Lead contact with the USPS and postal account management, and AAM auditors; responsible for the preparation of the magazine’s USPS ownership and AAM bi-annual audit statements.
• Manages stock reorders, creation and approval of all stock messaging, and stock deliveries to vendors.
• Controls planning, execution and quantitative analysis of all retention, gift and billing marketing efforts.
• Define and own annual budget controlling expenses and implementing program efficiencies.
• Lead contact for magazine list brokers and managers, including approving list rental requests, and monitoring and projecting list sales revenue and list rental responses.
• Manages newsstand/single copy sales, including distributions, promotions, sales and revenue, and vendor relations.
• Manage annual expense budget of $1M and revenue target of $600K
• Oversee internal and external vendors such as creative, print and digital production, and list brokers/managers for product development, program implementation, and process improvements.

Qualifications

• College Degree Required 
• Preferred 3+ years in the publishing industry focusing on audience development and creative promotions
• Excellent project management abilities