SVP, Sales and Sponsorships

About Chicago Public Media

Chicago Public Media is one of the nation’s largest local nonprofit news organizations. Home to WBEZ 91.5FM, the Chicago Sun‑Times, and Vocalo. Chicago Public Media reaches more than 3.3 million people weekly across broadcast, print, and digital platforms. As a mission‑driven organization, we aspire to be the most trusted news source Chicagoans turn to for understanding the people, events, and ideas shaping our community.

Chicago Public Media is a 100% community‑funded newsroom powered by nearly 97,000 members whose support makes our journalism possible. This sustained community investment helped drive nationally recognized work in 2025, including 29 awards from esteemed organizations, including the Public Media Journalists Association, the Edward R. Murrow Awards, and the National Association of Black Journalists.

We believe independent journalism is essential to a healthy democracy and that access to objective, fact‑based news is a right for every citizen. We serve the public interest by creating diverse content that informs and enriches our community, supported by a dedicated staff of approximately 250 professionals.

For more information, please see the Chicago Public Media Annual Report.

We are seeking an entrepreneurial Senior Vice President, Sales and Sponsorship to join Chicago Public Media. This role is ideal for someone who thrives on creating new revenue opportunities, enjoys working across teams, and isn’t afraid to challenge the status quo of our current media sales systems. We want you to help us evolve our sponsorship and advertising businesses that are truly for the public of Chicago.

The Senior Vice President, Sales and Sponsorship will develop and execute a comprehensive advertising and sponsorship strategy that manages campaigns across multiple channels and platforms. This position will build a collaborative structure that leverages CPM’s talent and opportunity in Chicago’s vast corporate and community spaces.

• Be aggressive and innovative in driving revenue in the digital advertising space that includes custom content, programmatic, streaming, newsletters, social and podcasts.
• Determine how to merge our radio, newspaper and digital sales teams, as well as advertising operations.
• Analyze market trends, set budgets, measure campaign performance to drive brand awareness and sales initiatives that have a big impact.
• Create seamless workflows and liaising between media agencies and account teams.
• Build out new sales channels as we innovate, including hyperlocal sales models, monetization of archives, and more.
• Partner with our Product team to optimize programmatic advertising, with a clear understanding that this revenue line comes second to membership.
• Work closely with executive leadership to manage the go‑to‑market narrative with key stakeholders.

• Proven experience in sales leadership within the media industry, with a preference for candidates who have experience in digital, public radio or newspapers.
• Demonstrated ability to close sales and strategically improve sales processes.
• Exceptional ability in managing and developing sales talent, with a track record of motivating teams to exceed their targets.
• Strategic thinker with excellent negotiation and relationship management skills.

Bachelor's degree in Business, Marketing, Communication, or related field. Advanced degree preferred.

The expected pay range for this position is $170,000 to $220,000 per ANNUM.

Chicago Public Media provides pay ranges representing its good faith estimate of what the organization reasonably expects to pay for a position. The pay offered to a selected candidate will be determined based on factors such as (but not limited to the scope and responsibilities of the position, the qualifications of the selected candidate, departmental budget availability, internal equity, geographical location, and external market pay for comparable jobs.

At Chicago Public Media, we care deeply about our employees as we know attracting, developing, and growing talent is key to our success and enhancing our impact.

Our…