Ad & Sponsorship Sales Manager

CalMatters seeks a results-driven Ad & Sponsorship Sales Manager to lead and grow our advertising and sponsorship revenue program. This person is responsible for generating earned revenue through the sale of newsletter and website advertising and event sponsorships while building strong, long-term partner relationships.

This is a frontline revenue role with clear performance goals tied to growth, retention, and new business development. The ideal candidate will be a creative, thoughtful seller who takes the time to understand a client’s goals and deliver solutions that achieve those goals.

What You Will Do

Drive Revenue

• Meet or exceed annual sponsorship revenue goals.
• Sell digital, newsletter, and event sponsorship packages.
• Develop compelling bundled sponsorship opportunities aligned with our mission and audience.

Build and Manage Relationships

• Serve as primary contact for sponsors from pitch through renewal.
• Lead renewal strategy with a target retention rate of 70 percent or higher.
• Share performance metrics and audience insights with clients.

Develop New Business

• Build and maintain a strong prospect pipeline.
• Conduct ongoing outreach to secure new sponsors across relevant sectors.
• Add new sponsor accounts each quarter to support growth goals.

Strengthen Sales Strategy and Operations

• Create and maintain persuasive, data-informed sales materials.
• Track activity and revenue accurately in Salesforce.
• Collaborate internally to ensure seamless fulfillment, billing, and reporting.
• Partner on event sponsorship strategy and packaging.

What You Bring

• At least three years of experience in advertising, sponsorship, or media sales.
• Proven success in meeting or exceeding revenue targets.
• Strong communication, negotiation, and relationship management skills.
• Experience using audience data and analytics in sales strategy.
• Organized, self-directed, and comfortable working in a mission-driven newsroom environment.
• Enthusiasm for working in a team environment and supporting teammates reach their fundraising goals.

CalMatters is a nonprofit, nonpartisan newsroom dedicated to explaining California policy and politics. Our sponsors support our mission while connecting with one of the most engaged civic audiences in the state.

If you are energized by building partnerships that align mission and revenue, we would love to hear from you.

Compensation And Benefits

The salary range for this position is $85,000 to $105,000 per year. This full-time position is represented by the Pacific Media Workers Guild and is based in California with a preference for a candidate in the Sacramento area.

We offer a complete benefits package with medical, dental and vision insurance — we cover 95% of the cost for employees and dependents — from a range of HMO and PPO providers. We also offer paid family leave and will match contributions of up to 4% of your salary to our 401(k) program and provide life insurance at no cost.

The salary range above is our best estimate, in good faith, of what we expect to pay for this position. Our final salary figure will consider the candidate’s experience and skills, as well as our commitment to pay our staff equitably.

How To Apply

CalMatters is committed to becoming an antiracist organization. We are an expanding and collaborative newsroom, successfully forging a new model for sustainable, intelligent, nonprofit journalism. We do our best to center justice, equity, diversity, and inclusion in all that we do—of which hiring is just one part. We encourage you to ask us about what concrete steps we are taking in service of these ideals. We strongly encourage applicants who are people of color, LGBTQ, and people with disabilities, regardless of national origin, alienage, and/or former incarceration status.

A college degree is not required. If you’re interested, provide a resume, work samples and a cover letter below. In your cover letter, using your own words, let us know how you would approach this role.

Please do not contact the hiring manager directly, and do not send resumés to staff at their individual email addresses. If reasonable accommodation is needed to participate in the job application or interview process, don’t hesitate to contact jobs [at] calmatters.org.

About CalMatters | The Markup

CalMatters, now in its eleventh year, is an award-winning nonprofit, nonpartisan news venture dedicated to explaining the policy and politics of America’s biggest state and the world’s fifth CalMatters, now in its eleventh year, is an award-winning nonprofit, nonpartisan news venture dedicated to explaining the policy and politics of America’s biggest state and the world’s fifth largest economy. In 2024, we merged with The Markup, a nonprofit national news publication that challenges technology to serve the public good.

We produce vivid, original multimedia journalism, data-driven news analyses and watchdog accountability reporting oncalmatters.org andthemarkup.org, and we distribute our work at no cost to more than 250 media partners. Our success metric isn’t clicks — it’s impact. Products at CalMatters/The Markup serve millions of people. For example:

• Digital Democracy, our unprecedented, custom-built AI tool that tracks everything you’d want to know about state legislators hasunearthed stories and prompted legislators to call for change.

• More than 1 in 5 California voters head to the pollsinformed by CalMatters’ nonpartisan Voter Guide.

• Blacklight, our real-time privacy inspector, has been used over 18 million times and helped journalists, nonprofits, and academicshold tech accountable.