Mental Health Project Engagement Editor

Are you passionate about finding innovative ways to listen to audiences and make our journalism more useful to our communities? If so, we want you to join us as an Engagement Editor, a job where you can put your ideas to the test as part of our new team covering mental and behavioral health. This is a two-year, community-funded project that will combine in-depth reporting – including explanatory, investigative and solutions-oriented coverage -- with an ambitious community-engagement effort that has impact in the region and statewide.

Exacerbated by the COVID-19 pandemic, mental health struggles have reached crisis proportions throughout the world. The Seattle region and Washington state are no different. This crisis touches people from all demographic groups, and it is made worse by the pervasive stigma attached to mental illness. Journalists can play an important role in destigmatizing mental illnesses while educating consumers and holding providers, social services and government agencies accountable for getting people the help they need.

This job will combine in-person and online engagement work (though in-person events could be limited by pandemic public-health guidelines in the near future). We want you to think ambitiously and creatively about who we're reaching, and how. Does our engagement welcome people of diverse backgrounds and include a multiplicity of perspectives? Is there something for people who prefer to communicate in non-traditional ways, such as through art instead of text? How might we expand our reach to have the strongest impact? What can we do to help destigmatize mental illness?

Please note: this is a community-funded position and is subject to grant renewal. While renewal is anticipated, funding for this role is not guaranteed. As such, this is considered to be a two-year role. To learn more about our grant-funded projects, click here.

Responsibilities

• Act as the audience engagement web producer for the Mental Health reporting team, posting and producing their stories for online readers and managing social media updates for the project.
• Balance pragmatism and innovation while promoting and polishing the project’s digital presence.
• Write news alerts, monitor activity, and cultivate social media feeds to reach readers quickly.
• Continue to build the project’s online audience while maintaining (and growing) community partnerships.
• Help our reporters incorporate audience insights into their coverage.
• Contribute to grant reports through careful and thoughtful analysis of information.
• Demonstrate creativity and a desire to actively work with the community as it pertains to the coverage.
• Crowdsource to help deepen our reporting. Solicit and work with guest writers.
• Plan online and in-person project events.  
• Track and analyze analytics and experiment with other Newsroom engagement editors and the broader department.

You will have the opportunity to occasionally report stories based on community interest. Successful candidates will have some understanding of mental-health systems and a proven track record of building and expanding communities, online and in person. Our engagement editor will learn a lot on the fly, so you should be flexible and nimble, detail-oriented and a good collaborator.

Qualifications

We are committed to diversity and creating an inclusive newsroom and encourage members of traditionally underrepresented communities to apply. If your profile does not match this job description exactly, you may still be a candidate for this position. Please let us know how your skills and experience relate to the role and its objectives in your cover letter.

• Experience: Three or more years of experience in audience engagement, preferably for a daily newspaper or a website.
• History of successful event planning and execution.
• Track record of forging and cultivating community partnerships.
• High comfort level with speaking in public and facilitating difficult conversations.
• Cultural competence when interacting with diverse communities.
• Understanding of web analytics and experience designing and executing social media campaigns.
• Education: Undergraduate degree in journalism or communications, or combination of related professional work experience.

Desired skills

• Experience with publishing tools such as WordPress and Marketing Cloud.
• Familiarity with audience engagement tools such as Twitter, Facebook, Instagram, Hearken, Crowdtangle and Groundsource.
• Fluency in another language is a plus.

Founded in 1896, The Seattle Times continues its tradition as a family-owned, independent newspaper that cuts through the clutter and provides readers with timely, relevant news. As the largest newsroom in the Pacific Northwest, we serve the region with thoughtful journalism that makes a real difference in our community. And as a media solutions company, we combine cutting-edge digital capabilities and service with the values and integrity of respected traditional media… with an established audience of 1.9 million. At The Seattle Times, you’ll find work that matters.

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