Seasoned advertising manager shares vision to support Northern Arizona businesses.
“While buying ads for the casinos and selling TV, cable networks or radio airtime in Northern Arizona, I was also picking up Quad Cities Business News,” she said. “I found the articles to be very interesting and also thought it had a great team of people working for the newspapers. The opportunity to apply for the position was synchronistic, as I was exploring new adventures.”
“We are thrilled to have Linda join our team,” said Publisher Troy Bix. “She is a seasoned professional in the advertising world and has many great ideas about how to help our clients showcase their products and services effectively to magnify their marketing efforts and boost their return on investment. She also has a wealth of knowledge about Arizona and is well connected to its rural communities. She knows what matters to residents and visitors.”
“One of my initial goals is to increase our digital footprint, to include all local businesses in our region, including the Verde Valley,” she said. “I want to increase our reach, getting the news in the hands of every business owner or decision maker throughout Northern Arizona.”
She notes that both the Quad Cities and Flagstaff areas have seen significant growth. “I believe local business is the lifeblood and pulse of the community. Our businesses drive the local economy. I honor the entrepreneurial spirit and want to partner with businesses to help share their stories, their successes, their inspirations, their innovations – including their pain,” said Thein. “We want to continue to be the editorial voice for the businesses.”
Thein came to Prescott with her parents as a teenager and graduated from Prescott High School. She earned her bachelor’s degree in marketing, advertising and business communications from Loyola Marymount University in Los Angeles and soon began selling billboard space to big companies and delivering films to movie studios.
In 1988, she decided it was time to go back home to Arizona. “The very fast-paced, wild and crazy LA lifestyle of the ‘80s, coupled with the cost of living by the beach, was not how I envisioned my future!”
She worked in broadcast television, selling ads and producing commercials at KUSK in Phoenix, which carried CNN Headline News, the Oakland A’s, San Diego Padres and the New York Giants games, and also Brigham Young University and University of Arizona sports. “It was the third independent station in the market, prior to the rise of cable television,” she said.
Thein married Bob Golosewski in 1989, who eventually became Tempe’s deputy fire chief. The couple decided she would live in Prescott with their two children, a son and a daughter, and he would commute to Tempe. “Prescott is so pretty – the boulders, the lakes, the mountains – and the community has always been warm and inviting,” she said. “It’s a great place.”
In recent years, Thein worked for Cable One Advertising, selling the television networks’ airtime, along with digital advertising. She then worked with Great Circle Media and their eight radio stations in Prescott, the Verde Valley and Flagstaff.
Thein’s children are grown now and living in Arizona: Jayce, 31, is a firefighter in Gilbert; Shay, 29, has a social media agency called “Kitsch.”
Thein enjoys hiking, pickleball and bike riding. She is a certified yoga instructor and has a passion for helping seniors with their balance and young adults with self-esteem. “Unlike social media, yoga is judgement-free. Kids need that space,” she said.
In her new role at QCBN and FBN, she can be reached at linda@quadcitiesbusinessnews.com. QCBN
By Bonnie Stevens, QCBN
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