Director, Product Management, O&O Ad Products

About Hearst Newspapers

Hearst Newspapers operates one of the largest and most trusted portfolios of local news brands in the country, reaching tens of millions of readers each month across digital and print platforms. Our mission is to inform, engage, and serve our communities through independent journalism —and to build sustainable business models that support that mission.

Advertising plays a critical role in that sustainability. As Hearst continues to evolve its owned-and-operated (O&O) advertising strategy, we are investing in product management leadership to ensure our ad products are well-designed, scalable, data-informed, and aligned with both advertiser outcomes and user trust.

The Hearst Newspapers Product organization partners closely with Editorial, Revenue, Data, and Engineering to build products that balance audience experience, journalistic integrity, and business growth. We operate as a centralized product function supporting a complex, multi-market organization, with a strong emphasis on clarity, execution, and cross‑functional alignment.

Within this group, the O&O Ad Products function focuses on the design, development, and evolution of proprietary advertising products that power local and national revenue initiatives.

The Director, O&O Ad Products is responsible for product management leadership across Hearst Newspapers’ owned-and-operated digital advertising products. This role partners closely with the Head of O&O Ad Product (Revenue), while remaining embedded within the Product organization to ensure strong product discovery, delivery discipline, and platform coherence.

This role owns:

• Product definition
• Roadmap execution
• Cross‑functional delivery
• Performance learning and iteration

The Director will work closely with Product, Engineering, Data, Ad Operations, and Sales teams to optimize existing products and bring new O&O ad products to market — including first‑party data‑powered solutions, and emerging products and formats.

• Own product management for O&O advertising products, from discovery and definition through launch, iteration, and sun setting.
• Translate commercial strategy and market needs (defined in partnership with the Head of O&O Ad Product and Sales teams) into clear product requirements and delivery plans.
• Maintain and evolve the O&O ad product roadmap within the Product organization, ensuring alignment with broader platform and data strategies.

• Lead product discovery and delivery for new O&O ad opportunities, including:
  • Self‑serve advertising packages
  • Sponsorship programs
  • First‑party data‑enabled ad products and targeting capabilities
• Partner with Engineering, Data and Design to scope MVPs, test hypotheses, and iterate based on performance and feedback.

• Work closely with the VP of Data and Data teams to:
  • Incorporate first‑party data products into O&O ad experiences
  • Ensure privacy‑safe, compliant use of audience data
  • Define measurement frameworks and success metrics for ad products
• Collaborate on product requirements related to data infrastructure, reporting, and insights surfaced to advertisers and internal teams.

• Serve as the primary Product counterpart to:
  • Programmatic
  • Local Direct and National Sales
  • Ad Operations
  • Revenue Operations
• Support go‑to‑market readiness by partnering with Product Marketing and Revenue teams on product documentation, internal enablement, and launch coordination.
• Ensure consistent product behavior and expectations across markets, while allowing for controlled flexibility where needed.

• Define and track product‑level KPIs (e.g., adoption, usability, performance indicators), in partnership with Revenue and Data teams.
• Use performance insights to inform backlog prioritization, iteration, and product decisions.
• Document learnings and patterns to improve future product development across the ad portfolio.

• O&O ad products are clearly defined, well‑documented, and consistently executed across markets.
• New ad products launch with strong cross‑functional…