In 2021, a coalition of Ohio organizations and community leaders, and the American Journalism Project, partnered to launch a network of independent, community-led, nonprofit newsrooms. Created out of a study that found many residents of Greater Cleveland were not getting the critical local information they needed, the mission is to ensure every resident of Ohio has the local news they need. This initiative is currently called the Ohio Local News Initiative.

The first of these nonprofit newsrooms will be in Cleveland, which anticipates launching in fall of 2022. The Cleveland newsroom will increase the volume of relevant, original local reporting available to all residents of Greater Cleveland, with a focus on key coverage areas and issues that residents elevated as being important to them, including government accountability, economic development, health, and education.

The audience editor has a crucial role in building and supporting a strategy that identifies our target audiences and grows our reach and engagement with them. The audience editor will report to the Editor in Chief; they will occupy a unique position within the Cleveland newsroom working closely with the newsroom to maximize distribution and reach, and with the business side to help drive engagement and membership. They will work directly with the organization’s partner, News Revenue Hub, which will provide them with strategic support related to goals, analytics, reports, distribution, and more.

Essential Functions:

Goal-setting and metrics 

• Establishes and owns KPIs for growth and engagement for newsletters, social, SEO, and other channels, as well as membership   

• Develop strategies to build reader habits; track, target, and grow loyal reader segments

• Builds insightful and actionable traffic reports and recommends actions based on insights 

• Uses audience data, in consultation with audience consultants, to drive to understanding and strategy adjustments 

• Makes recommendations on actions to take that further the newsroom’s goal of serving target audiences

Audience growth and engagement 

• Creates and executes search and social strategies to grow audience

• Writes and optimizes newsroom social media copy; posts stories to social platforms on a timely and strategic basis

• Ensures proper execution of SEO workflows for the newsroom, including training, documentation, and support

• Acts as newsroom point person for optimizing headlines for article pages, social media, and SEO

• Monitors search trends and local happenings to help inform coverage, making use of the organization’s social networks and tools such as Google Search Console 

• Provide coaching to staff about best practices on digital/social platforms

• Seeks out and manages potential third-party channels for growth, such as Apple News, Flipboard, Pocket, etc.

Newsletters 

• Owns newsletter strategy, including the production and execution of our editorial newsletter portfolio and targeted campaigns 

• Oversees email list growth and develops strategies to grow it 

• Owns newsletter engagement KPIs and reports regularly on progress 

Membership growth and engagement 

• Develops and executes strategies (targeted campaigns, consistent stewardship) to grow membership in partnership with News Revenue Hub 

• Develops effective messaging for campaigns, and manages onsite and newsletter calls-to-action  

• Experiments with product and messaging strategies that convert loyal readers into members and one-time donors into recurring members

• Measures and reports on metrics key to conversion and retention success, and develop strategies to increase effectiveness

Consider applying if you have some of these skillsets: 

• At least two years of full-time experience in a digital newsroom

• A desire to innovate, problem-solve, and launch new initiatives

• Strong editorial judgment (reporting experience preferred)

• A proven ability to work in partnership with journalists 

• Experience managing professional social accounts, and ideally established brands

• A finger on the pulse of social media trends

• A basic understanding of search engine optimization

• Experience running newsletters is a plus; knowledge of Mailchimp preferred

Compensation and benefits

Salary: starts at $75K

We’re committed to building an inclusive organization that represents the people and communities we serve. We encourage members of traditionally underrepresented communities to apply, including women, people of color, veterans, LGBTQ+ people and people with disabilities.

This position is open to remote work for the first several months before the candidate would be expected to relocate to Cleveland. Ohio-based candidates are preferred.