New hire has over 15 years of newspaper sales experience

Elaine Clisham, a veteran of newspaper advertising, has been named AAN’s new manager of sales and marketing.

Clisham begins working Sept. 23, replacing Adam Ebbin, who resigned to take a position as deputy commissioner of labor and industry for the state of Virginia.

Clisham has worked since August 1999 as marketing/research manager at the New Jersey Press Association. Prior to taking the position at NJPA, she worked in newspaper sales and marketing for more than 15 years, including three years as classified ad director at the New York Post and a short period as in-column sales manager at The Village Voice.

“Elaine is smart and honest and has exactly the kind of experience we wanted in this position,” says Richard Karpel, AAN’s executive director. “She’ll be a fabulous addition to the staff.”

“I’m delighted to be joining an organization that serves the alternative press,” Clisham says. “I am passionate about the role newspapers play in a free society, and alternative newspapers are passionate about fulfilling that role.”

Clisham has special expertise in producing state-of-the-art demographic and readership reports and training sales staff to target their efforts to desirable demographics.

“Alternative newspapers are frequently the first newspapers a younger adult will read regularly, and in that sense they are a critical part of the future for newspapers overall,” Clisham says. “I look forward to doing whatever we can to help them stay vibrant and independent.”

Clisham is a graduate of Princeton University and has an MBA from Northeastern University, with a concentration in marketing and service operations management.