Morgan Hill – David Marin, a sales executive with more than 20 years of newspaper experience, has taken over as advertising director for the Morgan Hill Times and its sister papers.
As vice president of advertising, Marin, 47, will oversee account executives handling advertising sales – both display and classified – for the Morgan Hill Times, the Dispatch and the Hollister Free Lance, all part of Mainstreet Media Group. The new ad director, who started on the job two weeks ago, will work out of the Dispatch offices in Gilroy.
“I like Mainstreet because it’s a young, growing company in a part of the country I love and am familiar with,” Marin said.
He comes to Mainstreet Media from Pulitzer Newspapers in Santa Maria, where he also served as vice president of advertising. Prior to that, he worked as an ad executive for Rocky Mountain News, in Denver, and the Monterey County Herald. While in Monterey, he also found time to earn a law degree.
“David has a diversity of experience from large to small newspapers, from marketing to budgeting,” said Mainstreet publisher Steve Staloch. “He’s a solid, seasoned veteran.”
For Marin, local papers like the Dispatch continue to play a critical role in an age of rapidly evolving technology.
“I think new technologies make face to face contact and handshakes even more important,” he said. “With the proliferation of Web sites, blogs, hundreds of cable channels, it’s easy for business owners to get lost. It makes more and more sense for them to choose local newspapers to keep in touch with customers.”
Marin replaces former advertising director Andy Bruns, who left Mainstreet Media in April to become publisher of The Daily American in Somerset, Pa. For the moment, the walls of Marin’s new office are bare as he busies himself with meeting staff, hiring employees and searching for a new home in Gilroy.
Marin is a single father with three adopted children. He said he looks forward to exploring the Central Coast of California with his kids.
“For me, this is just an ideal situation,” he said.
Serdar Tumgoren, Senior Staff Writer, covers City Hall for the Dispatch. Reach him at 847-7109 or st*******@gi************.com.
