The American Press Institute seeks to hire a Newsroom Success Manager to join our team that runs Metrics for News, an innovative custom analytics program that helps publishers practice audience-centered journalism by better understanding their audiences and what drives engagement. Our team helps publishers create smarter, more data-driven content strategies that align with their editorial mission and support their business goals. 

This role is an integral part of a close-knit team that runs Metrics for News. It involves monitoring and ensuring the success of our partner newsrooms and helping the newsrooms use data to discover journalism and business insights about audience engagement. It also involves customizing and delivering training for newsroom staff as well as facilitating cohorts of newsrooms that work on similar audience-related challenges. The person in this job helps to share best practices and lessons from newsrooms by writing about success stories from our partners that will be shared publicly. Our team also recently launched a program for source diversity tracking called Source Matters, which integrates with Metrics for News, and this person may pursue opportunities to support newsrooms in serving more-diverse audiences by diversifying their sources and coverage.

This job is well suited for someone who likes to learn about audiences and how to better serve them, dig into analytics to discover what works and what doesn’t, and train journalists on how to use data to inform editorial decisions, support business strategies and larger organizational goals.

It’s also an excellent role for people who enjoy developing resources to support newsroom content strategies, writing public reports about how analytics can transform a beat/team/newsroom, and speaking publicly about how newsrooms can use data to support their editorial priorities and mission.

This role is highly consultative and collaborative. You will work with reporters, editors, audience and analytics teams at newsrooms big and small across the country. You will help them focus on their audiences through analytics and community surveys. You will train teams to discover what works and what doesn’t in their journalism, helping them navigate their analytics and consulting on content strategy. If you like developing strategy, learning about audiences and empowering newsrooms to think differently, this job is for you. 

The Newsroom Success Manager will report to the Director of Metrics for News and will have high visibility with the executive team. Ideal candidates for this job must be collaborative, excellent communicators and creative team players and excel at keeping track of multiple projects and meeting deadlines.

The key functions and responsibilities of this job include:

• Be the primary point of contact with partner news organizations for consulting and data analysis.
• Lead and customize training programs for participating partners. 
• Lead and develop future coaching cohorts with the Metrics for News team for newsrooms working on similar challenges. 
• Train partner news organizations on how to analyze Metrics for News data to spot significant insights into what kinds of news readers are most engaged with.
• Develop training resources to support newsroom efforts in content strategy and audience engagement.
• Execute online surveys of people who live in partner news organizations’ local communities.
• Analyze community survey results to spot significant themes.
• Write public reports with the Metrics for News team to summarize the lessons and transformations produced by news organizations who use our program.
• Willingness and ability to travel to visit partner news organizations for training and consulting, when and if it is safe to do so.

Employment details

We encourage members of traditionally underrepresented communities to apply, including BIPOC, LGBTQ+ people and people with disabilities. We also know there are excellent candidates who might not have all the skills and experience that we have outlined. If that describes you, please apply and tell us about yourself and share your ideas for this role. You may be the ideal candidate.

This is a full-time position with a salary between $65,000 and $80,000 commensurate with skills and experience, and the following benefits:

• 20 days of paid time off, plus major holidays (9 per year)
• Medical, dental and vision benefits
• 401(k) plan with a generous matching policy
• Medical and/or dependent flexible spending plan
• Paid parental leave available
• Employer-paid life insurance, short-term and long-term insurance policies
• Pre-tax mass transit plan
• Professional development opportunities (for example, conference attendance or stipends for course enrollment)

API’s main office is located in Arlington, VA. Candidates may work remotely, or from API’s office if they live in or are willing to relocate to the Washington, D.C., area. Remote candidates should be willing to travel to the API main office for occasional meetings — typically trips of 2-3 days every 6-8 weeks — once it is thoroughly safe for employees to return to the physical office.

To apply: Email a resume, a letter explaining your qualifications and desire for this role, and any relevant samples of writing or research, to jobs@pressinstitute.org. Please mention “API newsroom success manager” in the subject line so we can direct your application to the right people.

Applications should be submitted as soon as possible.

About the American Press Institute

The American Press Institute advances an innovative and sustainable news industry by helping publishers understand and engage audiences, grow revenue, improve public-service journalism, and succeed at organizational change. The American Press Institute is a national 501(c)3 nonprofit educational organization affiliated with the News Media Alliance. It works with and draws on the best ideas from anyone working in news publishing and journalism and anyone interested in its mission of making journalism sustainable.

Skills desired

Candidates for this job should have:

• Professional experience directing or shaping content strategies, as an editor, audience development role, or other related roles in news organizations. This person should understand news judgment, beat reporting, journalism principles, and the full scope of editorial decision-making factors beyond just audience data.
• Familiarity with audience analytics programs for publishers, such as Metrics for News, Google Analytics, Adobe Analytics, Chartbeat, etc.
• Familiarity with audience engagement work, such as how to reach new audiences and how to analyze audience data to develop insights for news coverage.
• Excellent critical thinking and analysis skills, with the ability to separate meaningful signals and patterns from data, and to put data insights in context with other human and business factors that influence decisions.
• Excellent writing and communication skills, with the ability to present sometimes complex information in a clear and engaging way.
• Ability to collaborate effectively and efficiently with partners and colleagues.
• Organizational skills to manage several projects at a time.
• Familiarity with a cohort coaching experience (leading a group of people or organizations in a shared process) is desired but not required.

Experience expected

• Minimum 5 years experience in relevant fields of journalism, analytics or change management
• Experience in analytical roles analyzing data to extract insights and recommending actions
• Experience conducting workshop-style in-person or online training
• Experience constructing and analyzing surveys (particularly using Survey Monkey) is a plus
• Experience working in a news organization is required