Senior Specialist, Paid Media

Job Description

The Washington Post is seeking a senior digital marketing specialist to join our subscriptions marketing team. The senior specialist will be expected to vigorously analyze data, brainstorm innovative strategic approaches to paid media to drive audience growth, and mentor team members. The ideal candidate has a deep working knowledge of digital marketing and paid media; is a citizen of social media and can explain the landscape and its evolving nature; has an understanding of politics and its key players; and can foster meaningful relationships with key stakeholders, including senior leadership, platform reps, brand marketing, editorial, and acquisition.

This role requires the core capabilities of paid media strategy, project management, peer mentorship, and creative, all rooted in digital marketing. The job will be to strategize and foster the execution of paid media campaigns, ensuring innovative creative output by guiding, informing, and testing creative production. To be successful, the position requires attention to detail, regular monitoring of data and performance, an eye for news readers’ behaviors, and the ability to optimize the paid media budget in order to drive overall subscription growth. Our team is looking for people who are excited to think about news content differently.

Responsibilities include:

• Regular collaboration with acquisition, engagement & retention, analytics, finance, and brand marketing teams to identify growth opportunities.

• Develop and execute paid media strategies focused on subscriber engagement, retention, and re-engagement, ensuring a seamless journey from acquisition to long-term loyalty.

• Create and test paid media initiatives aimed at increasing habit-building behaviors among subscribers, driving repeat engagement with The Washington Post’s content and features.

• Further develop and own the paid media subscriber strategy, leveraging data-driven insights to optimize campaigns across channels, maximize engagement, reduce churn, and drive net subscriber growth.

• Stay up to date on industry trends, best practices, and emerging technologies in the paid media space to integrate new strategies and tactics.

• Guide team members in executing paid media campaigns that nurture reader habits, encouraging sustained interactions with The Washington Post to improve retention.

• Provide a weekly performance update to internal teams and key stakeholders, identifying opportunities to scale efforts or refine strategy for better engagement and retention outcomes.

• Partner with the newsroom and organic teams to implement content strategies that engage subscribers early in their tenure, reinforcing value and building long-term relationships.

• Leverage key data insights to inform re-engagement campaigns that bring dormant subscribers back into active readership through personalized content and targeted messaging.

• Exercise a thorough knowledge of the brand and an ability to balance paid media goals with broader company objectives, ensuring a strong connection between marketing efforts and audience loyalty.

Requirements include:

• A passion for and understanding of news, The Washington Post brand, our readers and potential subscribers.

• An interest and awareness of domestic and global current affairs.

• Expert working with various advertising platforms including Facebook, X, Reddit, Microsoft, LinkedIn, and Google.

• A bachelor’s degree in marketing, journalism, political science, english or communications or a related discipline.

• 4-5 years experience working in digital marketing, advertising, media or publishing.

• Experience leveraging analytics to make decisions.

• Experience managing paid marketing campaigns to achieve multiple marketing objectives.

• Demonstrated success with building an audience through social networks.

• Expert in using Microsoft Excel and Google Sheets to analyze data.

• Be curious, data literate and digital first.

The Washington Post’s policy for employees is five days per week in the office, with exceptions for newsgathering and general business travel.

Compensation and Benefits

Wherever you are in your life or career, The Washington Post offers comprehensive and inclusive benefits for every step of your journey:

• Competitive medical, dental and vision coverage

• Company-paid pension and 401(k) match

• Three weeks of vacation and up to three weeks of paid sick leave

• Nine paid holidays and two personal days

• 20 weeks paid parental leave for any new parent