People + Culture
Scroll to learn how we bring together unique perspectives, diverse backgrounds and experiences to serve our teams, customers and communities.
VIEWS & VOICES • WATCH EMPLOYEE VIDEO TESTIMONIALS
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Professional Development
Explore a selection of our professional development opportunities below:
ONBOARDING PROGRAM Your success starts when you do. Through our onboarding program, you’re given a boost up by pairing you with another employee within your group to show you the ropes so you can quickly get up to speed and on the road to success within your first 90 days.
DYNAMIC PERFORMANCE MANAGEMENT We practice real-time, ongoing and interactive Performance Management, designed to encourage growth and collaboration to create and meet your personal development goals while achieving business success.
ONGOING EDUCATION Through a series of learning options, you’ll have access to up-to-date industry education and information, live training, self-paced online learning (technical & soft skills) and job-related skills training.
LEADERSHIP MENTOR PROGRAM We select from our strong achievers to participate in our annual Leadership Mentor Program. The program is designed to accelerate the professional growth of employees to take on future leadership roles as critical leadership positions become available.
EARLY-CAREER DEVELOPMENT We nurture emerging talent through various internship and fellowship opportunities, designed to introduce candidates to our career areas, build skills and gain experience for future opportunities.
INTERNAL ADVANCEMENT Advance Local believes in finding and building talent from within. We broadcast our open positions internally, encouraging our employees to learn more, apply and interview.
Diversity, Equity & Inclusion
Central to our mission, to strengthen and empower the communities we serve, is advancing our Diversity, Equity & Inclusion efforts – from our internal practices to the talent we attract and foster, to the content we create and the ways in which we interact with the communities where we operate.
While there’s still more work to be done, we’re proud of the systemic and cultural changes that we have implemented so far.
This is only the beginning of what we view as ongoing, continuous, and necessary change.
DEI Initiatives Highlights
DEI TRAINING We continue to bring in external partners to run specific DEI training and examine our DEI efforts.
EMPLOYEE VOICES We’ve established internal practices, like focus groups conducted by an independent firm, to give all employees the opportunity to share their lived experiences and voice concerns and suggestions for the path forward.
DEI LEADERSHIP Committed to diversity and inclusion, we’ve hired, as a member of our senior leadership team, a Vice President, DEI to help us further develop our strategic plan for our future efforts.
HIRING & RECRUITING PRACTICES We are reviewing our hiring and recruiting practices to attract a more diverse pool of candidates.
ACCOUNTABILITY We annually report to our employees all our progress — and consequently, we expect them to hold us accountable to living up to our intentions.
BENEFITS We continue to evaluate and adjust our benefits to ensure they address the needs of our increasingly diverse workforce. For example, Juneteenth is now an official company holiday, benefits cover fertility, caregiver needs and mental wellness, and employees have free membership to an affiliate organization that fosters professional growth of women in media, marketing and tech.
Want to empower your communities and drive meaningful change? We do, too.
Join a team who believes in delivering value, through values.
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Caroline Harrison
Chief Executive Officer, Advance Local
Caroline is CEO of Advance Local which owns and operates businesses spanning media, marketing, software and data solutions. Advance’s portfolio includes Advance Local Media Groups (MLive Media Group, Advance Ohio, Alabama Media Group, NJ Advance Media, Advance Media NY, MassLive Media, Oregonian Media Group, PA Media Group and Staten Island Media Group), Advance 360, Headline Group, Subtext and ZeroSum.
Caroline began her career at the company as a college intern reporter at the Staten Island Advance. Upon graduation, she became an Executive in Training at the New Orleans Times-Picayune and then the Patriot-News in Harrisburg, Pa., before returning to the Advance in 1999 as General Manager, working closely with her father, longtime Publisher Richard E. Diamond. In April of 2004, shortly after her father’s death, she was named Publisher of the Advance. Caroline also held a senior leadership role at Advance Central Services (ACS) and was named President of Advance Local in January 2018.
A native Staten Islander, Caroline is a graduate of Staten Island Academy and holds a B.A. from Dartmouth College.
She is on the board of directors of the Alliance for Audited Media. Caroline also serves as an Elective Trustee of The Metropolitan Museum of Art and is Chair of the Board of the Hopkins Center for the Arts at Dartmouth College.
Matt Kraner
Co-President, Advance Local
Matt is Co-President of Advance Local. In this role, he works closely with the CEO and Co-President on short and long-term strategic planning, ensuring we’re executing on our mission and strategic priorities.
Matt began his extensive career in the media industry at the Kansas City Star. In 1999, he finished his tenure with the company as the VP of Advertising. Matt then took on the dual role of VP at Pulitzer Publishing Company and GM at the St. Louis Dispatch. During this time, he was instrumental in acquiring the Suburban Journals of Greater St. Louis, which at the time were the largest network of weekly papers in the country.
In 2006, Matt joined Advance as Chief Marketing Officer at the Cleveland Plain Dealer. He then went on to become the President of AnnArbor.com, an innovative digital local news company, which would become, within months, the top website nationwide in local audience reach.
Matt became President of NJ.com in 2012, and President of NJ Advance Media (which includes NJ.com and The Star Ledger, Advance Local’s largest newspaper) in 2014. His team included journalists credited with a range of awards as well as some of the area’s leading marketing consultants, all with the shared goal of developing new approaches to reporting news and creating value for our business partners.
Matt holds a B.A. in Communications from the University of Central Missouri.
Pam Siddall
Co-President, Advance Local
Pam is Co-President of Advance Local. In this role, Pam works closely with the CEO and Co-President on short and long-term strategic planning ensuring we’re executing on our mission and strategic priorities. She also leads business operational services for each of our local markets and manages our efforts to diversify Advance Local’s consumer revenue with a focus on digital content monetization strategies as well as maximizing revenues from our valued print subscribers.
Prior to this role, Pam held a number of executive positions including Chief Operating Officer of Enterprise Services, President of Advance Central Services (ACS), Executive Vice President of Advance Local, and Publisher of The Birmingham News. Before her time with Advance, Pam also held Publisher positions in Wichita, Kansas (The Wichita Eagle) and Columbus, Georgia (Columbus Ledger-Enquirer).
She has extensive experience in leading multimedia companies and has worked across multiple markets to advance bold strategies dedicated to building digitally focused news and information companies committed to producing great journalism for print and digital audiences.
Pam is a graduate of Columbus State University, summa cum laude. She holds CPA designation in Alabama and Georgia. Pam graduated from Northwestern University’s prestigious Advanced Executive Program, and is a graduate of Leadership Alabama, Leadership Birmingham, Leadership Georgia, and Leadership Columbus. Pam is a member of the INMA Board of Directors, member of Columbus State University Foundation Board of Trustees, and former member of the SNPA Board of Directors.
Andy Lobred
Chief Strategy and Acquisition Officer, Advance Local + President, ZeroSum
Andy joined the company in January 2017 and is responsible for revenue strategy, customer operations and sales performance for Advance Local. His focus not only includes supporting local sales execution, but also includes building diversified revenue streams from key verticals such as automotive, retail, real estate, healthcare and education.
He also serves as President of ZeroSum, Advance Local’s digital automotive advertising and SaaS company. In this capacity, he supports all business functions focused on building a differentiated, nationwide software platform and automotive marketing company. This business operates in all 50 states and provides software services to automotive manufacturers, regional dealer associations and local automotive dealerships. In addition to his role supporting ZeroSum, Andy also serves as the lead executive sponsor for Hoot Interactive.
Prior to Advance Local, Andy served as YP’s SVP of Sales where he managed and led a cross-functional 750+ person sales organization across 20 markets.
Previously, Andy held progressive leadership positions at Media General, including Head of Digital Media and CRO across its Broadcast, Digital and Publishing businesses which served 50+ markets across the country.
Andy holds a B.S. from James Madison University and an MBA-Finance from Seton Hall University.
Peter Weinberger
Chief Innovation Officer, Advance Local
Peter was named Chief Innovation Officer in January 2018. He and his product, technology, content, and data insights teams lead product development and provide strategic direction on content initiatives that enhance user experience and monetization opportunities. They collaborate across Advance Local to deliver robust and essential solutions for the communities and customers we serve.
Peter also oversees the Advance Alpha Group, a media incubator focused on new ideas, experimental technology, and rapid prototyping to expand the company’s reach into new markets and product spaces. The group’s creations include Thetylt.com, Elsewhere, and Subtext.
Previously, Peter served as President of Advance Digital, a former affiliate of Advance Local. Advance Digital was a leading creator of digital news and information products that delivered multi-platform solutions for consumers and advertisers in markets across the United States, in alliance with Advance Local’s media groups.
Peter has served on boards of MatchCraft, Wanderful Media, Chrome Data Corporation, and Real Media.
Before joining Advance, Peter held sales leadership roles at Hearst Magazines and The Village Voice.
Peter holds a B.A. from Tulane University.
Eric Adler
General Counsel, Advance Local
Eric L. Adler is the General Counsel of Advance Local Media LLC and sits on its executive committee, where he is involved in Company strategic decisions and operations. Prior to becoming General Counsel, Eric was a Partner at Sabin, Bermant & Gould LLP and was co-head of the firm’s Labor and Employment practice. He has been with an Advance-related entity since 2005.
In addition to advising Advance Local on all labor and employment related matters, including race, gender, religion, national origin, age and disability discrimination, sexual harassment, retaliation, defamation, public policy violations, wage and hour, and breach of contract, he also counsels on claims Involving restrictive covenants and trade secrets, and other legal Issues related to Advance Local. Eric graduated from the State University of New York Binghamton and Hofstra School of Law, where he was Notes and Comments Editor of the Hofstra Labor Law Journal. Prior to joining Sabin, Bermant & Gould LLP, Eric was an employment lawyer at Cablevision Systems Corporation as well as at Solomon Smith Barney. Eric began his practice with Jackson, Lewis, Schnitzler & Krupman.
Eric belongs to the American and New York State Bar Associations and has participated on various committees focused on labor and employment law.