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Vice President of Sales, Interactive Division

CA - Irvine

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Opportunity Snapshot

You'll be a pivotal member of the "ground floor" team launching the new and highly energetic Interactive Division of one of the nation's largest media companies. In fact, if you're a good fit for this dynamic role, you won't be satisfied with merely "launching" -- you'll look forward to unleashing the Division on the interactive market. In addition to sharing in the challenge and satisfaction of helping transform what is currently a newspaper and broadcast company into an interactive media powerhouse, you'll be in a position to take advantage of the "upward draft" of opportunity created by that transformation.

You'll leverage your substantial interactive and advertising sales management experience in directing and managing all sales activities, including market competitiveness, pricing, compensation, and distribution and channel strategy. One of your key challenges will be building a sales organization from the ground up and increasing Interactive revenues substantially in a very short period of time. One of your key advantages will be the fact that we already own our local markets in terms of print and/or broadcast and already have sales presence and infrastructure there. You'll also play a general leadership role in helping to create an innovative, spirited, and success-oriented organization.

While you might not recognize the Freedom Communications name, the interactive world soon will -- and you'll help make that happen. We are the 14th largest media company in the nation, comprised of newspapers, broadcast television stations, and interactive media businesses. We publish 28 daily and 37 weekly newspapers, with a combined daily circulation of more than 1.2 million subscribers. Our eight-station broadcast division includes five CBS and three ABC network affiliates.

What Else You'll Bring to the Table

We're looking for a professional with a bachelor's degree (MBA a plus) and significant experience in sales, including senior management roles and a demonstrated ability to lead a high performance sales team. In addition, you'll need established contacts and relationships with potential customers and channel partners, as well as outstanding consultative selling abilities and excellent interpersonal skills.

In addition you'll need:

The ability to plan and manage at both the strategic and operational levels
A proven evangelical sales track record in a new media environment
The ability to work collaboratively with colleagues and staff to create a results-driven, team-oriented environment
Experience in a publishing environment would be helpful

What's in It for You

High visibility -- this division is one of FCI's major corporate initiatives for the next few years, and the Board of Directors and CEO will follow your successes with interest.

The "best of two worlds" -- you'll enjoy the entrepreneurial vigor of a true start-up atmosphere, but also the stability and resources of $1B Freedom Communications.

Career growth -- "growth" is the operative word here; not only will the position itself grow under your leadership, but also the Division will grow, both organically and via acquisition. Your success in this role could set you up to pursue a number of opportunities throughout Freedom Communications.

Excellent compensation -- in addition to a competitive salary and bonus potential, we offer a comprehensive benefits package including all that you would expect as well as a few features that might pleasantly surprise you.

Shaping a New Interactive Division

We anticipate tremendous success in this new venture (a significant revenue stream already is flowing from online activities) and you'll contribute to strategies that will change the way Freedom attracts and understands consumers. This Division will act as a centralized resource for all of our business units as well as leading corporate-wide initiatives.

Overall the business units are eager for the support and tools the Division will provide. At the same time, everyone in the Division will be a change agent, and you'll need to motivate and influence others to align with the overall vision as well as your own strategies and tactics. Entering the interactive market at this point in time means we won't make the mistakes that others have, but it also will challenge you to create strategies and processes that will distinguish us from our competition.

More About Your Role

Reporting to the Division President, you'll serve as a key member of the executive team that sets the division's strategic direction. Your main objective will be to build a sales organization that will have both national and local components. While the precise makeup of this organization will evolve over time, we expect that you will assume leadership of our National Sales Account Executives, Sales Training initiatives, and Client Services. You'll also contribute to our telesales organization, helping to engage these people to sell interactive along with Freedom's other products.

Your specific activities will include:

Overseeing the development of a national sales network.
Managing outside sales organizations.
Maximizing each key revenue channel, including search, local search, national sales, and classified advertising.
Working with all Freedom business units to ensure that Interactive revenue goals are met.
Working with other Freedom divisions to establish compensation, training, and sales incentive programs.
Maintaining key customer relationships and developing and implementing strategies for expanding the company's customer base.
Working closely with the VP of Marketing to develop and execute programs.
Managing the overall sales process, including setting appropriate metrics for sales funnel management.
Developing pricing policies, including volume discounts and terms and conditions for high-profile customers and channel partners.

You can expect to travel nationally up to 20% of the time in this role.

Keys to Success

As a leader of change, your success in this role will depend upon your ability to motivate and influence a wide variety of people to embrace new ways of doing things, and translate their print and broadcast expertise and experience to the virtual world. In addition, in order to be an outstanding VP of Sales, you will:

Take a proactive, life-long-learner approach to maintaining your industry and product knowledge.
Leverage the tactical skills to execute on our vision and achieve your goals.
Demonstrate a high degree of self-motivation, holding yourself to high standards.
Bring excellent organizational skills, including follow up as well as time and resource management abilities.
Possess exceptional leadership abilities, including initiative, a willingness to mentor others, and a strong teamwork orientation.
Be a self-assessor, understanding what makes you good at what you do, and constantly taking steps to build on strengths and improve on weaknesses.

If this sounds like the right mix of challenge and opportunity for you, and you meet the minimum qualifications, we want to hear from you!

Who We Are

Freedom Communications, Inc (FCI) was officially established in 1950 but our roots reach back to 1935, when Publisher R.C. Hoiles acquired the Santa Ana Register, the first of many media businesses that would make up FCI. Today we are a privately owned diversified media company with an employee base of over 7,000.

Freedom Communications is in the midst of an exciting period of growth and transformation. We continue to innovate by looking for new business opportunities through a mix of acquisitions and internal growth, developing our Interactive business, and pushing the envelope in online, on-air, and print media delivery.