Director, Paid Media - CNBC & MS NOW

VERSANT (Nasdaq: VSNT) is an industry-changing media and entertainment business and home to trusted brands that shape culture, inform audiences, and build lasting connections. It operates across four core markets: political news and opinion, business news and personal finance, golf, and sports and genre entertainment. These markets are served through a powerful portfolio of iconic and innovative brands, including CNBC, MS NOW, USA Network, Golf Channel, Oxygen, E!, SYFY, and Versant's sports division USA Sports, along with complementary digital assets including Fandango, Rotten Tomatoes, GolfNow and GolfPass.

The Director, News Paid Media will lead the paid media strategy for Versant's News portfolio, supporting both CNBC and MS NOW. This highly visible role is responsible for developing and executing full-funnel paid media strategies that drive customer acquisition and engagement

As the subject matter expert for direct-to-consumer paid media, you'll partner closely with Marketing, Analytics, Research, Creative, Finance, and external agency partners to develop data-driven campaigns that maximize marketing investment and business impact. You'll also help evolve marketing measurement capabilities, attribution strategies, and marketing technology infrastructure to support long-term growth.

Why This Role Matters

Paid media plays a critical role in connecting audiences with trusted news brands. This position directly influences subscriber and audience growth by translating business objectives into measurable marketing outcomes, leveraging data, technology, and strategic partnerships to optimize performance across every stage of the customer journey.

What You'll Do

• Own the end-to-end paid media function as the team's subject matter expert, balancing strategic planning with campaign execution, reporting, optimization, budget management, and operational excellence in a lean, high-impact environment.
• Develop and lead full-funnel paid media strategies across CNBC and MS NOW, driving awareness, customer acquisition, engagement, retention, and conversion through data-informed marketing initiatives.
• Serve as the direct-to-consumer (DTC) paid media expert, developing acquisition strategies that support subscription and audience growth objectives.
• Collaborate with peer group in Owned Media to help quantify increases in audience reach, campaign frequency, and overall impact.
• Partner with internal Marketing, Analytics, Research, Creative, Product, and Finance teams to develop integrated media plans aligned with business priorities.
• Lead paid media budget planning, forecasting, financial reconciliation, and internal billing processes while ensuring efficient allocation of funds.
• Collaborate with external agency partners to translate business objectives into effective paid media strategies, oversee execution, and continuously optimize campaign performance.
• Analyze complex performance data to identify actionable insights, measure campaign effectiveness, and inform future investment decisions.
• Contribute to business development models focused on acquisition, conversion, churn, customer lifetime value (LTV), and incremental business impact.
• Help evolve the organization's marketing technology ecosystem, including mobile app attribution, web analytics, tracking infrastructure, and connected TV (CTV) measurement capabilities.
• Partner with Analytics teams to continuously improve attribution methodologies and deepen understanding of paid media's contribution to marketing and overall business performance.

What You Bring

Required Qualifications

• Bachelor's degree in Marketing, Communications, Business, Analytics, or a related field, or equivalent practical experience.
• 8+ years of experience leading paid media strategy and execution, preferably within digital media, streaming, subscription, news, or direct-to-consumer businesses.
• Demonstrated expertise managing full-funnel paid media campaigns across search, social, programmatic, video, connected TV (CTV), and emerging digital channels.
• Proven experience driving customer acquisition and optimizing performance across the subscriber lifecycle, including acquisition, conversion, retention, and lifetime value (LTV).
• Strong understanding of marketing measurement, attribution methodologies, incrementality, and performance analytics.
• Experience managing significant paid media budgets, forecasting spend, and overseeing budget planning and financial reconciliation.
• Advanced analytical skills with the ability to synthesize large, complex datasets into clear insights and actionable business recommendations.
• Experience partnering with external media agencies while maintaining strategic oversight and accountability for campaign performance.
• Familiarity with marketing technology ecosystems, including mobile app attribution, web analytics, pixel implementation, and CTV measurement.
• Exceptional cross-functional collaboration skills with experience partnering across Marketing, Research, Analytics, Creative, Product, Finance, and executive stakeholders.
• Excellent communication and presentation skills with the ability to translate technical marketing concepts into meaningful business outcomes.

Preferred Qualifications

• Experience marketing subscription-based digital products or streaming services.
• Experience supporting premium news, media, or entertainment brands.
• Familiarity with platforms such as Google Ads, DV360, The Trade Desk, Meta Ads Manager, Campaign Manager 360, Google Analytics 4, Adobe Analytics, Kochava, Adjust, Tableau, Looker, or similar technologies.
• Experience developing or enhancing marketing measurement and attribution frameworks.

How We Do It

Success in this role is grounded in Versant's core behaviors:

• Trust: Build credibility through accountability, sound judgment, and consistent delivery of high-quality work.
• Teamwork: Foster strong partnerships across cross-functional teams and external agencies to achieve shared business goals.
• Transparency: Clearly communicate performance, recommendations, and opportunities while using data to inform decision-making.
• Agility: Adapt quickly to evolving priorities and changing market conditions in a fast-paced news environment.
• Entrepreneurial Spirit: Take ownership, identify innovative opportunities, and continuously seek new ways to improve marketing performance and business impact.

Why You'll Love It Here

At Versant, you'll have the opportunity to shape how millions of consumers discover and engage with some of the most trusted brands in news. You'll work alongside talented colleagues in a collaborative, data-driven environment where innovation, curiosity, and continuous learning are valued.

This hybrid position is based in our New Jersey office, with team members working onsite three days per week to foster collaboration and connection.

• Occasional work from our New York office may be required.
• We offer a competitive total rewards package, including comprehensive health and wellness benefits, retirement savings programs, paid time off, professional development opportunities, and access to employee perks designed to support your personal and professional growth. Salary information: $130,000 - $150,000 (bonus and long term incentive eligible)

At CNBC Headquarters in Englewood Cliffs, NJ, you'll have access to great perks and amenities:

• Sweat it out -- Free onsite fitness center with state-of-the-art equipment, plus daily group classes
• Eat up -- Gourmet cafeteria with daily specials plus soup and salad bars
• Extras -- Dry cleaning, shoe shining, and sneak peeks

Don't have a car? No problem! We offer free shuttle transportation to and from multiple locations in Manhattan, Brooklyn, Hoboken and Jersey City.

As part of our selection process, external candidates may be required to attend an in-person interview with a VERSANT Media employee at one of our locations prior to a hiring decision. VERSANT Media's policy is to provide equal employment opportunities to all applicants and employees without regard to race, color, religion, creed, gender, gender identity or expression, age, national origin or ancestry, citizenship, disability, sexual orientation, marital status, pregnancy, veteran status, membership in the uniformed services, genetic information, or any other basis protected by applicable law.

If you are a qualified individual with a disability or a disabled veteran and require support throughout the application and/or recruitment process as a result of your disability, you have the right to request a reasonable accommodation. You can submit your request to [email protected].

VERSANT Media is committed to fair and equitable compensation practices. We include a good faith pay range for each position to comply with applicable state and local pay transparency laws and to promote equity across our organization. Actual compensation will be based on factors such as the candidate's skills, qualifications, experience, and location and may include additional forms of compensation and benefits such as health insurance, retirement plans, paid time off, etc.

VERSANT Media is not accepting unsolicited assistance from search firms for this employment opportunity. All resumes submitted by search firms to any employee at VERSANT via-email, the Internet, or in any form and/or method without a valid written Statement of Work in place for this position from VERSANT's Talent Acquisition team will be deemed the sole property of VERSANT. No fee will be paid in the event the candidate is hired by VERSANT as a result of the referral or through other means.