Leah Nelson, a media veteran with nearly 30 years of experience, has been named the advertising director for The Times.

The announcement was made by Norman Baggs, general manager of The Times.

As director of advertising, Nelson will be responsible for oversight of all local, regional and national sales efforts for The Times, including all print and digital products.

Prior to joining the staff of The Times as a regional sales manager this summer, Nelson served as major account manager for the newspaper in Jacksonville, Fla., and retail advertising manager for the newspaper in St. Augustine, Fla. She also previously was retail sales manager for the newspaper in Juneau, Alaska.

Nelson has an MBA in Media Management from Lynn University in Boca Raton, Fla.

“I am very excited at the opportunity to help businesses grow and succeed by intelligently using the broad range of advertising programs offered by The Times. It’s an exciting time in advertising and marketing, we’ve got a great staff at The Times, and Gainesville is a great place to be,” Nelson said.

Nelson has lived in the North Georgia area before, having worked as a sales representative at newspapers in Gainesville, Winder and Athens as well as with marketing agencies in the Atlanta area.

“Leah’s greatest strengths are problem solving, strategic planning and innovative thinking. Leah is a strong sales leader, highly skilled in both the print and digital realms,” said Lori Maxim, director of revenue for Morris Multimedia Inc., parent company of The Times.

Nelson and her husband live in Gainesville with their two adult children.

The Times publishes a daily newspaper, a weekly free distribution newspaper, the news website gainesvilletimes.com and three glossy quarterly magazines, in addition to offer a wide array of digital agency services including webpage production, targeted online advertising and search engine optimization.