CHICAGO – Cars.com, the premier online resource for buying and selling new and used cars, today announced that Linda Bartman, the site’s Vice President of Marketing, has been named Chief Marketing Officer. As CMO, Bartman is responsible for overseeing the company’s branding, advertising, and overall marketing efforts, ensuring that Cars.com is delivering industry-leading products to the market.
“As a rapidly growing company, branding is more important than ever,” said Mitch Golub, Cars.com’s President. “It requires a strategic viewpoint on how we position our business and our value for success in the long-term. Linda brings a broad skillset of both strategic positioning and marketing expertise that will continue to make our business and products win in the marketplace, and set a growth path for emerging opportunities.”
Bartman joined Cars.com a year and a half ago as the Senior Director of Trade and Sales Marketing with the initial remit to evolve the current business-to-business value proposition to meet the more current view of the digital landscape for customers. In January, Bartman was named Vice President of Marketing where she was tasked with setting the strategic foundation for marketing across the Cars.com business, with dealers and with car shoppers.
“It’s an exciting time for Cars.com and the digital landscape, and I am looking forward to taking the brand to the next level, not just in the third party automotive site category, but among the top technology and media companies,” said Bartman. “As we work to position our brand as a strong digital media provider, the need to build a fully integrated marketing strategy will be critical to the value we deliver for our advertiser customers through our high quality audience. With this strategy, we will expose the Cars.com brand to more car shoppers and help them determine what to buy, where to buy and how much to pay.”
Prior to joining Cars.com in 2011, Bartman was the Brand & Marketing Communications Director at BP Fuels business, where she was responsible for the retail fuel’s brand strategy and marketing communications.
ABOUT CARS.COM
Cars.com is an award-winning online destination for car shoppers that offers information from consumers and experts to help buyers formulate opinions on what to buy, where to buy and how much to pay for a car. Cars.com offers thousands of new and used vehicle listings, consumer reviews, side-by-side comparison tools, photo galleries, videos, unbiased editorial content and many other tools. Cars.com put millions of car buyers in control of their shopping process with the information they need to make confident buying decisions. Launched in June 1998, Cars.com is a division of Classified Ventures LLC, which is owned by leading media companies, including A.H. Belo (NYSE: AHC), Gannett Co., Inc. (NYSE: GCI), The McClatchy Company (NYSE: MNI), Tribune Company and The Washington Post Company (NYSE: WPO).
