Business Manager: The North Wind Student Newspaper

Title: Business Manager

Company: The North Wind: The Official Student News Site of Northern Michigan University

Pay: $13.73/Hr

Hours: 20 hours/week

Overview

The North Wind is an independent, student run, publication, funded by the NMU student activity fee and advertising sales made by the business manager. The North Wind publishes new web content weekly during the school year on its website at thenorthwind.com. The North Wind is published by The North Wind Board of Directors, consisting of current student body members, faculty, administration and area professionals, and North Wind alumni. 

Job Summary

The business manager position for The North Wind is responsible for two main roles: selling advertisements and managing The North Wind financial statements and budget. Daily activities include customer relations, staff relations, maintaining daily business needs, and constructing and improving an advertisement campaign. Monthly tasks include attending monthly meetings with The North Wind Board of Directors, setting up and completing a monthly budget, and maintaining long term customer relationships. 

Business Manager Duties

• Sell advertisements to local businesses using a developed advertisement campaign that appears on The North Wind’s website and social media pages
• Manage financial statements with the Dean of Students Program Coordinator, and develop a detailed monthly budget from the financial statements
• Attend monthly North Wind board meetings, informing board members of any changes with sales, financial statements, budgets, and any other North Wind matters that apply to the business manager role
• Work side by side with the editor-in-chief and graphic designer, ensuring advertisement placement, proper advertisement graphic design, and meeting the business needs of staff members
   

Business Manager Duties and Qualifications

• Have a good skill set with time management and be able to set goals and achieve them within a timeline in a remote setting
• Have a learning background in sales, customer discovery, prospecting, and finalizing client relations for advertisement sales
• Have a learning background in finances, being able to read financial statements given from The North Wind financial accounts, and able to form a monthly and yearly budget from financial statements
• Able to attend weekly staff meetings and monthly board meetings, ensuring each member of the staff and board of directors is aware of the business proceedings and is included in each decision, with their intentions in mind as well as the business manager’s intentions
   

Applicants must have a strong, but learning background, in:

• Communication with other businesses, colleagues, and other members related to a company
• Be able to work on self-set deadlines and cooperatively with others, communicating needs of your own tasks to them when needed
• Be proficient in time management, being able to handle multiple tasks in the role and outside of the role
• Familiarity with Asana, Slack, and Intuit Quickbooks is recommended, but not required for applicants

NOTE: Students hired in this position will begin 2 weeks before the end of winter semester to ensure proper training.