Are you passionate about finding innovative ways to listen to people? Do you want to make news stories more useful to our audiences? Can you rally a newsroom around a shared social media strategy that puts the audience first and best serves our most underrepresented communities?
KTOO is looking for someone to help manage a team of journalists with a strong sense of collaboration, strategy, empathy, equity and inclusion. The Audience Engagement Editor works side-by-side with the Managing Editor for News, advocating for the audience to make sure that news stories and information meets communities’ information needs and is distributed in a way that meets them where they are at.
We’re looking for an innovator, an experimenter and an iterator. You should be very excited about social media, crowdsourcing, call-outs, virtual and in-person listening sessions and community engagement events. You should be a convener and a matchmaker between the community and the newsroom. You should agree whole-heartedly that journalism can be participatory and empathetic, while also accurate and impartial.
This is a highly strategic position. You’ll have wide influence over the newsroom as a whole with the ability to assign stories and beats when there is a clear demand or need from our audience.
KTOO is participating in America Amplified, an initiative to use community engagement to inform and strengthen our journalism, funded by the Corporation for Public Broadcasting. That means we have a strong cohort of other public media stations to help us with tools, ideas and best practices for putting our community at the center of our reporting process. This position will be a key player in that collaboration and will have a wealth of support.
We’re based in Juneau and we want you to become deeply intimate with our community, but because our audience is primarily online, there is the option for this position to be remote.
This position reports to the Managing Editor for News, but will also work closely with the Membership & Marketing Manager and occasionally the Arts & Culture team.
Responsibilities:
- Identify and assign stories of interest to KTOO’s audience and the community
- Identify tools and platforms essential to innovation in storytelling, audience and community engagement, and advocate for their deployment
- Shape and implement style guides and strategies for KTOO’s website, social media profiles, newsletter(s) and other audience platforms
- Lead the engagement strategies for collaborative productions and special projects by members of the news team and other content producers at KTOO
- Measure, monitor and analyze audience engagement data and present findings and best practices
- Create a workflow and maintain a posting schedule for content on web and social media
- Fill in to edit news stories for ktoo.org, including copy editing, headline writing and identifying appropriate visuals
Successful candidates will likely have the following skills and competencies OR demonstrate that they have equivalent skills based on lived experience:
- Experience working in a newsroom or similar environment
- Advanced knowledge of audience metrics and expertise in analyzing data from Google Analytics, Chartbeat, and other tools for audience insights
- Understanding of search and social listening tools such as Google Trends or CrowdTangle
- Familiarity with the evolving landscape and tools of engagement journalism
- Demonstrated interest in social media trends, user behavior and user experience
- Experience building relationships with historically underrepresented communities and approaching reporting with an equity lens
- Experience using social media and newsletters to maximize impact
- Strong writing skills, proven news judgment, and journalistic integrity
- Experience working with cross-functional teams across an organization
About Us
KTOO has a mid-sized newsroom in a small market, which means we have robust reporting power and a strong presence and reputation in the community.
Our editorial focus is a mix of stories of local and statewide importance. Our reporters focus on city governance, housing, tourism & other local economic drivers, social justice, Alaska Native culture and governance, health and science, and climate.
KTOO supports station-wide efforts to increase diversity and inclusion. The newsroom is committed to consciously seeking out voices, perspectives and stories not found in other outlets or in the media at all. We keep track of the gender and race and/or ethnicity of all our sources and strive to source our stories with diversity and inclusivity in mind.
We also know that a diverse and inclusive staff will lead to stronger reporting and a deeper connection to communities we serve. We strongly encourage women and non-binary candidates; Alaska Native, Indigenous and people of color; people with disabilities and those with diverse economic and educational backgrounds to apply. You will be supported by our team.
KTOO is honored to broadcast on Lingít Aaní. Our studios sit on what was once tideland, and is the home of the Áak’w Kwáan L’eeneidí, or Dog Salmon People. We respect the Lingít people for the care of this land and these waterways for thousands of years.
Deadline: Open until filled. First round of applications will be reviewed in early July
Salary: Annual salary between $54,090 – $59,460. Plus competitive benefits including health insurance, retirement, paid leave and holidays, and 20 weeks of paid family leave.
Questions? Contact our Managing Editor for News
Apply: online at https://www.ktoo.org/job-opportunities/apply-online/
Posted: 6/13/2022
KTOO is an Equal Opportunity Employer