General Manager

Bay Colony Search; New York (NY); On-site; USD 180,000 - 260,000; Full time

Job summary

Bay Colony Search is seeking a General Manager to rebuild and lead a $2–$3M revenue digital media portfolio. You will own strategy, P&L, and audience development, with responsibility for turning AI-driven ideas into revenue and for aligning Editorial, Product, Engineering, Marketing, and Sales around a unified plan.

You must be based near NYC, be comfortable in a fast-moving media environment, and drive partnerships with events to grow the business beyond SEO and pageviews.

Qualifications

• 8+ years of progressive leadership in B2B media, digital-native publishing, or trade media.
• Real experience owning a divisional P&L, not just contributing to one.
• A track record of building modern audience acquisition strategies and email databases that actually convert.
• Experience turning subscribers into revenue, not just growing a list for the sake of growing it.
• A genuine understanding of where digital publishing is headed — AI, the death of traditional SEO, what's replacing it.
• Bachelor's degree in Business, Communications, Marketing, or something related; an MBA doesn't hurt.
• Live in NYC vicinity with the desire and willingness to be in the office most days.
• Experience in email-first or subscription-driven publishing models.
• A background in B2B media specifically.
• Familiarity with how events businesses work.
• Scar tissue from leading a turnaround in a fast-moving media environment.

Responsibilities

• Set the strategy, then own it across editorial, tech, and operations.
• Run the P&L like it's your own business with budget, cost structure, and revenue growth ownership.
• Build direct relationships with the audience through proprietary subscriber databases and channels.
• Design and implement AI-based content workflows for creation, acquisition, and monetization.
• Align Editorial, Product, Engineering, Marketing, and Sales around a single strategy.
• Explore opportunities to connect digital audience initiatives with live events.

Skills

Leadership

P&L ownership

Audience acquisition

Email databases

AI in content

Strategic planning

Cross-functional leadership

B2B media

Turnaround experience

Education

Bachelor's degree in Business/Communications/Marketing

MBA (optional)

Job description

Let's be honest about something: the old rules of digital media are dead. Search traffic isn't coming back the way it used to be, and if you're still building a media business around SEO and pageviews, you're building on sand.

We know that. That's exactly why we're hiring you.

We're looking for a General Manager to take our digital media business — a real, established $2-3M revenue portfolio, not a startup experiment — and rebuild it for what comes next. You'll report directly to the President at the parent company, and you'll have full P&L ownership. This isn't a "manage what exists" role. This is a "figure out what this business needs to become, then go build it" role.

Here's the real talk: some of what exists today probably needs to be reimagined, some of it probably needs to go. You'll be the one making that call, backed by real authority to act on it.

What you'll actually be doing

Setting the strategy, then owning it

You'll assess what we have — editorial, tech, operations — and decide what's worth investing in, what needs restructuring, and what needs to be cut. Then you'll build the modern B2B media strategy that replaces it.

Running the P&L like it's your own business

Because in a lot of ways, it is. Budget, cost structure, revenue growth — you'll own all of it and be accountable for the results.

Building direct relationships with your audience

We don't want to depend on search algorithms we don't control. You'll build proprietary subscriber databases and direct distribution channels so we own our relationship with our audience instead of renting it from Google.

Actually using AI, not just talking about it

You'll design real operational frameworks for how AI shows up in content creation, audience acquisition, and monetization — not as a buzzword, but as a working part of how this business runs.

Getting a lot of smart people rowing in the same direction

Editorial, Product, Engineering, Marketing, Sales — you'll be the person who aligns all of them around a shared strategy instead of five different priorities.

Connecting digital and live events

We run conferences too, and there's real opportunity in the overlap. You'll partner with our events leadership to find the synergies between our digital audience and our in-person business.

Finding what's next

New products, sponsorship models, partnerships — you'll work with executive leadership to spot the opportunities that don't exist yet.

What you need to bring

• 8+ years of progressive leadership in B2B media, digital-native publishing, or trade media — you've done this before, in some form
• Real experience owning a divisional P&L, not just contributing to one
• A track record of building modern audience acquisition strategies and email databases that actually convert
• Experience turning subscribers into revenue, not just growing a list for the sake of growing it
• A genuine understanding of where digital publishing is headed — AI, the death of traditional SEO, what's replacing it
• A bachelor's degree in Business, Communications, Marketing, or something related; an MBA doesn't hurt
• Live in NYC vicinity with the desire and willingness to be in the office most days
• Experience in email-first or subscription-driven publishing models
• A background in B2B media specifically
• Familiarity with how events businesses work
• Scar tissue from leading a turnaround in a fast-moving media environment

One more thing

This role isn't for someone who wants to maintain the status quo. It's for someone who looks at a legacy business model and gets excited about what it could become instead.