Rest of World is hiring a Chief Audience Officer to significantly expand our reach and impact as we work to make global tech journalism more accessible & actionable to decision makers. The Chief Audience officer will partner with the publisher and senior leadership team during a new phase of strategic growth to ensure Rest of World has clearly defined audience goals, actionable audience intelligence and insights, and effective strategies in place to reach and engage our target audience.

The Chief Audience Officer will be an avid student of Rest of World’s prospective and core audiences, acting as a key adviser to the editorial and product teams to ensure we are effectively meeting our audience’s news and information needs. This person will be skilled at utilizing data and strategic judgment in guiding the audience team and our nonprofit organization toward meeting audience and business goals. While the Chief Audience Officer role is primarily a management role, they should be highly experienced and comfortable in the hands-on execution of audience development, serving as an active collaborator to colleagues in testing, measuring and iterating growth & engagement strategies across products and platforms.

Responsibilities

Driving strategic growth

• Develop and oversee comprehensive audience growth and engagement strategies across digital, with a focus on newsletters and social video
• Partner with the senior leadership team to set the publication’s quarterly and annual audience goals (quantitative and qualitative)
• Define audience funnel and target segments to guide the publication’s growth, engagement and conversion strategies including the use of paid media marketing
• Provide the organization with the latest guidance on news consumption trends, relative to RoW’s target audience
• Oversee audience-first editorial strategy, including creating original content to drive reach, engagement and impact goals
• Manage relationships with key digital platforms and news aggregators such as Apple News, SmartNews, FlipBoard, LinkedIn, TikTok, X, Instagram, Facebook and WhatsApp, among others.

Building brand loyalty & engagement

• Be cognizant of and thoughtful about the Western gaze in social distribution framing; able to collaborate with the editorial team to ensure the audience engagement plan reflects Rest of World’s ethos
• Oversee Rest of World‘s voice across channels, with a focus on continuing to bolster our brand identity.
• Partner with senior leadership team to define, measure and communicate RoW’s mission-driven impact
• Partner with product team to develop user-driven features and products that drive audience and business goals

Sustaining the mission

• Lead a 3-person team, providing mentorship, guidance, prioritization and professional development opportunities
• Research, test, and adopt new platforms, channels, and strategies to ensure effective deployment of audience development resources
• Partner with product team to develop, maintain and analyze audience research, with a focus on first-party data
• Oversee measurement and reporting of progress toward annual audience goals; proactively communicate audience trends
• Create and manage analytics-driven reporting frameworks to measure, optimize and report on audience reach and engagement across channels

This position will report to the publisher and will manage an audience team based in Rest of World HQ in New York City. This is a U.S-based role.

Qualifications

• At least 5 years leading teams in audience development, with experience managing team roadmaps to meet goals and deadlines while maintaining morale and momentum
• At least 10 years of experience in audience development, preferably at a media organization, with a track record of building an audience, improving core platforms and driving impact, loyalty and digital revenue
• A demonstrated ability to partner with stakeholders to drive results, including editorial, product and development teams
• Ability to effectively organize and prioritize short-term projects as well as complex, longer-term projects simultaneously
• Expert knowledge of news consumption trends, user experience and search/social optimization, with the ability to train teams on best practices and product development
• Strong copywriting, headline writing and editing skills, with keen attention to editorial standards, brand identity and platform-specific formats
• A strong work ethic and a record as a collaborative communicator who knows how to get buy-in on their ideas and move to execution
• Deep understanding of audience segmentation strategies and effective targeting methods
• Experience overseeing paid media marketing with a proven record of driving audience acquisition 
• Experience and/or relationships with third-party platforms; Experience building strategic partnerships a plus
• Excellent analytical skills and the ability to interpret data, translate insights into actionable strategies, and create comprehensive reporting frameworks
• Expertise in relevant audience development products and platforms, such as MailChimp, Later.com, GA4, Plausible, Looker, Google Search Console, and other tools for audience insights
• Experience working in an agile environment a plus

About Rest of World

Rest of World is a nonprofit publication that challenges expectations about whose experiences with technology matter. We connect the dots across a rapidly evolving digital world, through on-the-ground reporting in places typically overlooked and underestimated. Our vision is to become an indispensable source of information that captures people’s experiences with technology outside the West by producing stories that: connect the dots, empower local journalists, hold the powerful accountable, challenge stereotypes, and focus on the experience. Read more here: https://restofworld.org/about/

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