With about 35 years of experience in newspaper sales and advertising, university alumnus and former Washington Post executive Arnie Applebaum will become the new general manager of Maryland Media Inc., the parent company of campus-based publications The Diamondback, The Mitzpeh and The Terrapin yearbook.
Applebaum, who was The Post’s vice president of sales for about three years, began training Monday and will officially take the spot of current general manager Michael Fribush on Sept. 1.
“He’s bringing a lot of good ideas, which is what Maryland Media has been looking for,” Fribush said, “some new and different directions we could go in and different things we may try to boost our revenue potential.”
Applebaum said his goal is to ensure The Diamondback remains financially self-sustaining while satisfying the demand and usage of online news as it begins publishing once a week next semester.
“It was easy to figure out how the bills would get paid when we were publishing The Diamondback five days and even four days a week, but now we have to pay the bills from one day a week, so we have to think about how we’re going to monetize digitally,” Applebaum said. “These are the exact issues I dealt with at The Washington Post, but now I get to apply all that to this environment.”
Applebaum worked as a sales manager for The Diamondback about 35 years ago before moving onto work in sales and advertising at The Adler Group, and later operating The Apartment Connection. He graduated with a bachelor’s degree in business management.
After about 20 years, he took a job as a sales manager at The Post, eventually becoming the vice president of sales.
While at The Post, Applebaum said he helped direct and manage other publications of the paper, such as The Washington Post Sunday Magazine, Express and the El Tiempo Latino. He said he also helped the newspaper figure out how to use engaging digital ads as a revenue source.
He wants The Diamondback to follow a similar path, he said.
“I always look at everything from my customer’s point of view,” he said. “Who’s buying it? What’s important about it to them, and how can we make it better?”
His experience and creative ideas will help The Diamondback thrive in the changing business climate, Maryland Media President Steve Lamphier said.
“The printed circulation of The Diamondback has been reduced substantially over the past five years,” he said. “Students aren’t picking it up like they used to because students would rather read with whatever digital device they have. That’s where we need to be present.”
