About
Jon Stewart

Born and raised in the Pontiac, I bring more than two decades of experience in sales, marketing and technology with radio stations, newspapers, and local businesses of all sizes to help leverage digital and traditional marketing to bring real business results.

**The Equity, January 11, 1995** – (Click for full article)

My generation remembers a time before the internet, where shared phone lines were still common between neighbours. The Pontiac of the 1980s and 1990s was very different than it is today, more remote and disconnected from the world around us. But when the first computers in our area were connected to the internet for the first time in the mid 90s, I knew that embracing technology was going to change our world.

I’ve always been an early adopter for new tech. I created my first website in 1996 using the now defunct Geocities, and eventually started a career as a web designer in April 2000 for a group of radio stations in Ottawa owned by Rogers Media. Back then, people thought that the Internet was only used by young men in the 20s and I was brought on to oversee the digital footprint for 101.1 Xfm, an alternative rock station that launched earlier that year. After early success online with Xfm, I was soon managing websites for CHEZ 106, Y105, Oldies 1310 and CJET in Ottawa & the Valley. Over my decade in the radio business, I learned a lot of how audiences connect with brands online and how media (and eventually other businesses) can benefit from a well crafted digital marketing strategy.

Early web "splash" page for 101.1 Xfm Ottawa

By the mid 2000s my career shifted to include advertising, applying my technical knowledge, marketing experience, and natural sales skills to elevate our team’s ability to secure more digital business. I led digital sales for more than 20 radio stations in Ontario and Atlantic Canada and focused on sales training and demonstrating results for our clients and my radio stations led the company in audience engagement and my sales teams led in digital revenue.

In 2012, I took an opportunity as Media Strategy manager at The Ottawa Citizen and it’s parent company Postmedia. Newspapers took a gut punch during the 2008 recession, and although the sales team had some initial success by adding digital to their client’s campaigns it was not enough to offset revenue hemorrhaging from the printed product. I built a new department within the company, helping the sales department tap into agency-style services utilizing platforms like Facebook, Search, Spotify as well as web and app development and systems integrations to substantially grow our relationship with our clients.

Within two years I was promoted to Director of Advertising and by 2016 I was leading multiple newspapers across Eastern Ontario & in Montreal. We were wildly successful, offsetting our print losses with substantial digital revenue growth for several years. When the pandemic hit and media was faced with sharp declines in revenue and looming layoffs, I decided to look for other challenges and took a year off to reset myself. I found that reset back home in the Pontiac, and eventually decided to move back full time.

In 2021, an old colleague of mine back from my Xfm days brought me onboard with a company that specialized in content management systems for the radio industry and had recently expanded to add sales and marketing support. I spent a year refreshing much of my technical skills I had accumulated earlier in my career, and ultimately decided to go out on my own and launched Calumet Media & Consulting.

Marketing Skills

Brand creation, lead generation, content writing, creative design, data analysis, database and privacy management, email communications, video production, event management, social media, SEO/SEM, public relations.