Business Development and Partnerships Lead

Lee Enterprises is seeking an energetic, skilled Business Development & Partnerships Lead to build new revenue channels that expand the value and reach of our journalism, audiences, and local-market presence.

Reporting to the Interim Head of Audience Growth and Development, this individual will lead the development of a new line of business focused on commercial innovation, strategic partnerships, and diversified revenue. The role will work closely with Lee’s Chief Revenue Officer and leaders across the company to identify opportunities, develop business cases, structure partnerships, launch pilots, and scale successful concepts.

This is a hands-on builder role for someone who can move fluidly between strategy and execution. The ideal candidate is externally oriented, commercially creative, and skilled at translating emerging ideas into practical, sustainable businesses.

Key Responsibilities

Develop new revenue channels

• Partner with Lee’s corporate audience team and with publishers, advertising directors, and editors in local markets to develop B2B and institutional sales opportunities that package Lee’s content in compelling new ways.
• Help define the strategy and operating model for group subscriptions serving corporate, educational, nonprofit, government, and other institutional customers.
• Prioritize opportunities in sectors such as financial services, healthcare, higher education, senior living, and major employers within each market.
• Identify, evaluate, and develop revenue opportunities beyond traditional individual subscriptions.
• Explore sponsorships, bundled offerings, licensing arrangements, and other partnership-based revenue models.
• Develop business cases, financial projections, pilot plans, and recommendations for promising concepts.
• Establish clear measures of success and use performance data to determine whether opportunities should be scaled, refined, or discontinued.

Build strategic partnerships

• Source and develop partnerships that expand Lee’s audience, revenue, and customer value.
• Identify platforms, organizations, brands, and institutions that can introduce Lee’s journalism and products to new audiences.
• Develop community and local-business partnerships that can be activated across Lee’s markets.
• Lead partner outreach, opportunity development, negotiation, and ongoing relationship management.
• Create repeatable partnership models that can scale across multiple markets while retaining local relevance.

Bring an external perspective to Lee

• Monitor developments across media, membership, commerce, technology, and adjacent industries for ideas Lee can adapt.
• Build relationships with prospective partners and maintain an active pipeline of external opportunities.
• Evaluate new business models based on audience need, strategic fit, revenue potential, feasibility, and scalability.
• Bring market intelligence and customer feedback into Lee’s product, audience, and commercial strategies.

Lead cross-functional execution

• Work closely with the Chief Revenue Officer and commercial leaders to align new initiatives with Lee’s broader revenue strategy.
• Partner with teams across Audience Growth & Monetization, local markets, advertising, product, editorial, finance, legal, and technology.
• Define ownership, resource requirements, economics, and go-to-market plans for new initiatives.
• Move promising concepts from exploration through pilot, launch, and scale.
• Communicate progress, results, risks, and recommendations clearly to senior leadership.

What Success Looks Like

Within the first 6-12 months, the Business Development & Partnerships Lead will have:

• Established a prioritized pipeline of partnership and new-revenue opportunities.
• Developed and begun scaling a group-subscription and institutional-sales program.
• Launched pilots with clear customer demand, revenue potential, and performance measures.
• Built strong working relationships with Lee’s commercial, audience, product, and local-market leaders.
• Created a disciplined process for evaluating, testing, and scaling new business concepts.
• Generated meaningful new revenue while helping diversify Lee’s long-term revenue mix.

Qualifications

• Bachelor’s degree in Marketing, Advertising, or equivalent combination of education and work experience
• Significant experience in business development, strategic partnerships, B2B sales, corporate development, and/or new-business incubation.
• Demonstrated success turning early-stage ideas into commercial offerings, partnerships, or revenue-producing programs.
• Strong commercial judgment, including experience assessing market demand, developing business cases, and evaluating financial potential.
• Experience negotiating partnerships and working with senior decision-makers inside and outside an organization.
• Ability and willingness to travel as business needs require, potentially up to 25%. 
• Ability to lead complex, cross-functional initiatives.
• Strong communication, presentation, and relationship-management skills.
• Comfort operating in a changing environment with a high degree of ownership and ambiguity.
• A practical, entrepreneurial mindset and willingness to move between strategy, analysis, relationship development, and execution.

Experience in media, subscriptions, membership, local commerce, education, technology, or another industry undergoing business-model transformation is helpful but not required.

Leadership Attributes

The successful candidate will be:

• Externally curious and alert to emerging business models.
• Commercially creative while grounded in data and financial discipline.
• Skilled at connecting customer needs with Lee’s distinctive assets and capabilities.
• Collaborative, credible, and effective across organizational boundaries.
• Comfortable testing ideas, learning quickly, and adapting based on results.
• Accountable for outcomes—not simply generating concepts.