Senior Vice President of CNN Ad Sales & Client Partnerships, Warner Bros Discovery
$245-455k
Office located in Hudson Yards, NY
Entertainment company
Be an early applicant
Entertainment company
1001+ employees
Be an early applicant
$245-455k
Office located in Hudson Yards, NY
1001+ employees
Company mission
To take the world’s greatest possibilities and make them a reality - creating impact, inspiring imagination, and building connections.
Role
Who you are
- This position requires a visionary, external-facing sales leader who can navigate the evolving media landscape, develop distinctive sales propositions, and forge deep relationships with major brands and agencies
- 10-15+ years of executive sales leadership experience, preferably in premium news, digital media, or multi-platform advertising
- Proven track record of closing high-value, multi-million-dollar ad deals, managing senior-level client and agency relationships
- Deep expertise in both direct and programmatic sales, with a strong grasp of first-party data strategies and evolving ad tech trends
- A natural connector who can align sales strategy with CNN editorial and product leadership, ensuring revenue goals support content integrity
- Strong ability to partner across divisions within Warner Bros. Discovery, integrating CNN into broader WBD sales initiatives
- A deep understanding of the news industry’s business dynamics, premium video monetization, and the evolving digital advertising landscape
- Familiarity with data-driven, performance-based advertising solutions and emerging monetization models (e.g., streaming, CTV, newsletters, podcasts)
- Client-Centric: Passionate about delivering best-in-class advertising experiences, ensuring top-tier client retention and satisfaction
- Strategic Thinker: Capable of balancing short-term revenue execution with long-term innovation
- Collaborative Leader: A true team player who excels at working across organizations and fostering alignment between sales, content, and product
- Industry Presence: A visible industry executive who can represent CNN at key advertising events and confidently engage C-suite partners
What the job involves
- The Senior Vice President, CNN Ad Sales & Brand Partnerships is responsible for developing and executing high-impact advertising strategies that drive predictable, repeatable, and reliable direct revenue growth across premium brand partnerships
- This executive will lead CNN’s national ad sales organization, collaborating closely with CNN’s editorial, product, and executive leadership teams to craft innovative, brand-aligned advertising solutions across all platforms
- Additionally, this role will work in tight coordination with Warner Bros
- Discovery’s (WBD) broader ad sales organization to integrate CNN’s premium news offerings into WBD’s portfolio, unlocking new revenue opportunities and maximizing client partnerships
- Expand CNN’s direct client base by identifying new revenue opportunities across linear, digital, streaming, audio, and emerging platforms
- Partner with WBD ad sales leadership to align CNN’s ad offerings with broader cross-network, multi-platform solutions
- Work hand-in-hand with CNN’s editorial, digital, and product teams to create custom, premium advertising solutions that resonate with CNN’s audience while upholding journalistic integrity
- Influence product development to drive innovative data-driven and programmatic ad solutions, leveraging CNN’s first-party data and audience insights
- Serve as the key bridge between CNN’s ad sales team and WBD’s sales organization, ensuring CNN is fully leveraged in multi-network, global advertising opportunities
- Collaborate with internal stakeholders—including CNN leadership, WBD sales, marketing, research, and legal—to drive cohesive, integrated sales initiatives
- Build and nurture deep relationships with CMOs, agency leaders, and Fortune 500 brands, developing high-value partnerships that position CNN as a must-buy in the premium news category
- Set ambitious sales goals, ensuring the team consistently exceeds revenue targets
- Spearhead new digital ad product development in partnership with CNN’s product and engineering teams, focusing on premium video, branded content, first-party data solutions, and emerging ad formats
- Assess and drive CNN’s participation in industry events and trade marketing opportunities to solidify its leadership position in the market
- Lead and mentor CNN’s national ad sales team, ensuring they are empowered with the best tools, training, and strategic vision to succeed
- Foster a high-performance, growth-oriented culture that balances revenue execution with long-term strategic development
Our take
Warner Bros Discovery (WBD) is an entertainment company formed from the 2022 merger of Warner Bros and Discovery. It is a leader in the creation, production, distribution, licensing, and marketing of content, with Warner Bros alone boasting a huge library – more than 100,000 hours of programming – before the companies were joined. WBD’s portfolio includes Discovery Channel, Warner Bros. Entertainment, Discovery+, HBO Max, and franchises like “Batman” and “Harry Potter”.
Both of the company’s previous businesses have operated throughout the digitisation of the media space. David Zaslav, CEO of WBD, headed Discovery during its expansion into digital media, to make it a “content company” over a “cable company”. The recent focus for Warner Bros has been on next-gen distribution efforts, expanding the availability of its content across platforms and devices to reach the modern viewer. The new company has plans to migrate to one tech stack, which will require extensive retooling, as well as exploring cost-saving automation opportunities for its operations.
Since the merger, the new giant that is Warner Bros Discovery has had a shaky start, forcing the company to wind down operations and cut back on content, which included the very public scrapping of the “Batgirl” movie. However, it now seems the company may have been ahead of the curve, as a wider trend of cutbacks has been seen from peers in the space. This early move, combined with a hyper-focus on cash generation, seeks to establish WBD as an outperformer in an industry on the downturn.
Kirsty
Company Specialist at Welcome to the Jungle
Insights
-1% employee growth in 12 months
Company
Company HQ
Midtown Manhattan, New York, NY
Leadership
David Zaslav
(CEO, not founder)Spent 17 years at NBCUniversal including as President of NBC Cable LLC and NBC Media LLC.
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