Applications for this role have now closed. Please see our jobs page for our open positions.
Minimum salary: $95,000 / year
Location: Anywhere in the US (Remote)
Reports to: Editor in Chief
The 19th is expanding its capacity to do in-depth community reporting. This editor will be on the frontlines of our ongoing mission to inform and engage our audiences, as well as a key player and leader in the newsroom. This person will be leading and managing a team that pursues ongoing coverage of issues that matter most to The 19th’s current and aspirational audiences.
The audience engagement editor is adept at listening to audiences to discover trending topics and underreported stories alike, and will help our newsroom find relevant angles in those conversations. This editor will find ways to invite communities to contribute and respond to, or engage and interact with, our journalism. And this editor will develop content strategies that maximize our reach across platforms, and occasionally, in person.
This position will play a critical role in The 19th’s newsroom. As an editor devoted to community-focused listening and reporting, this person will work with other journalists, engagement producers and editors in the newsroom, and key stakeholders on the product team, to produce ongoing coverage as well as social-first and audience-driven storytelling. The reporting and the resulting stories will be multimedia and multi-platform.
Responsibilities include:
- Managing a team of journalists with empathy, strategy and a strong sense of collaboration
- Supervising work of direct reports (engagement and digital producers, platform editors, and fellows); scheduling staff, and conducting performance evaluations
- Driving and leading more reporting, production, execution and distribution of audience-focused journalism projects like our explainer on Texas’ abortion law that was based on reader questions or this KQED roundup of audience stories about COVID shame
- Collaborating with 19th editors to identify and assign stories of strong interest to 19th audiences
- Editing and producing journalism across mediums and platforms
- Developing content and engagement strategies with an initial eye toward SEO, social media and newsletters
- Overseeing our short-term analytics, including sharing insights from across platforms to inform daily decisions
- Working with newsroom colleagues to generate and implement new ideas for audience work
- Working with teams across the organization to build audience engagement
- Developing training plans to help editorial staff approach their work through an audience lens
Non-essential duties (as capacity permits):
- On occasion, fills in for other editors or producers
- Represents The 19th at events — virtually or in person — as a speaker, moderator, or attendee
- Participate in culture building, inclusive decision making, and bringing ideas to different parts of our work in order to help us improve as an organization. For example, helping to onboard new team members and participating in our hiring process
- Participate in team-building, organizational and individual relationship building, and professional development throughout the year
- Other duties as assigned
Relevant skills include:
- 4+ years in a newsroom, with at least two years of full-time editing or engagement experience
- Stellar ability to communicate effectively across platforms, formats and time zones
- Excellent writing, reporting, editing and engagement/social media chops, with the ability to work quickly and accurately
- Proven capacity to identify opportunities for posts and stories of high relevance to 19th audiences
- Experience using social media platforms and newsletters to maximize reach and impact
- Demonstrated interest in identifying and deploying cutting-edge engagement and audience development ideas
- Experience organizing communities and audiences, especially in a journalistic context—either digitally (i.e. Facebook groups, social media or web forms) or in real life (events and forums)
- Proficiency in SEO and headline/copywriting for search and social media
- Journalism experience itself, either locally or nationally, especially involving stories that are human-centric or involve marginalized communities
- Ability to stay focused, organized and proactive. You’ll be working with a number of journalists or staffers across the organization, potentially dealing with several different editors
- A good listener — this includes on social media and across online platforms. We want to understand what conversations are or might be around a particular topic — and then turn that insight into actionable items
- Familiarity with social events tools, like Instagram Live and Twitter Spaces
- Familiarity with engaged journalism or audience-centered approaches such as call outs on engagement platforms or via forms like this one from The New York Times
- Familiarity with a range of significant public affairs issues and subjects such as government and politics, the economy, education, health, immigration, legal affairs and the environment
- Experience working in a demographically diverse news environment
- You share our values, and work in accordance with those values
We know there are great candidates who might not check all these boxes or who possess important skills we haven’t thought of. If that’s you, don’t hesitate to apply and tell us about yourself. We also encourage members of traditionally underrepresented communities to apply, including people of color, LGBTQ people and people with disabilities.
Benefits
- Vacation Time Off (20 days per year)
- Sick Time Off (10 days per year)
- Personal Days (6 days per year)
- Holidays (17 days in 2022)
- Paid Family Leave (100% up to 6 months)
- 401(k) Plan (up to 3.5% matching on 6% contribution)
- Flexible Spending Plan (for qualifying medical or child care expenses)
- Health, vision, and dental insurance (100% for employee / 60% for dependents)
- Long Term and Short Term Disability insurance
- Life insurance
- Caregiver leave (100% up to 4 months)
How to apply
Interested candidates should apply here by March 6, 2022 at midnight (CT).Have questions about this position? Contact us at [email protected]. (Note: We are not accepting résumés or applications via email; apply here.)