Audience Editor, News

USA TODAY is looking for an innovative, high-energy, data-driven Audience Editor to lead audience engagement strategy for our news, economy and lifestyles coverage.  

As a key member of our reimagined USA TODAY audience team, you will utilize your expertise to enhance audience growth, discoverability, engagement and revenue generation for our core journalism. 

This role is right for you if you’re passionate about news and its essential role in helping people understand the world around them, make informed decisions and navigate everyday life. You understand how audiences discover and engage with news content, and you know how to translate complex topics into clear, accessible and useful information. You are both a strategist and an experimenter, combining strong news judgment with audience insights to test new approaches across social media, video, newsletters, search and emerging platforms, then turn successful ideas into repeatable practices. 

The ideal candidate is as comfortable interpreting data and platform analytics as they are connecting with audiences on TikTok, Reddit, Instagram or through a newsletter. You understand that the audience is at the heart of everything we do. 
 
You will also be expected to monitor trends in the broader creator industry and identify ways to translate relevant tactics into strategies for our newsrooms. 

This highly-collaborative role will be accountable for translating broader business and newsroom strategies into actionable steps for the journalists on the news and lifestyles teams. The successful candidate will oversee a small team of content creators to put our best foot forward at every step of the audience journey. As such, you should be comfortable leading through both direct management and influence, building productive relationships with peers and partners throughout the organization. 

We recognize that culture change is challenging, and the right editor will embrace the opportunity to introduce new ideas, improve established practices and help colleagues adapt to a rapidly evolving audience landscape. You will bring energy, resilience and a commitment to turning strategy into measurable action. 

This role may require working extended hours, including evenings, weekends and holidays, sometimes unexpectedly, when news requires it.   
 
This role is remote and can be based anywhere in the US, except for Alaska, Hawaii and Wyoming. If you live near one of our local newsrooms, you may have the option to use that as a base of operations.   

Responsibilities:  

• Develop strategies, workflows and best practices to rapidly achieve audience growth and discoverability on social, newsletters, emerging platforms and search in collaboration with the greater USA TODAY audience team and the USA TODAY News leadership team.  
• Monitor analytics both on platform and on social, in newsletters and alerts, translating that data into action steps for journalists on your direct team and on the broader News and Lifestyles teams. 
• Lead audience planning for major events, tentpoles and breaking news, determining how journalism should be packaged, distributed and presented at each stage of the audience journey. 
• Create, edit or optimize audience-focused content during major events and breaking news when needed. 
• Partner crossdivisionally on new efforts to monetize our journalism and grow audience on social media and distributed platform channels. 
• Manage a team of content creators charged with ensuring consistent brand strategy, voice and execution across platforms, including social channels, newsletters, section fronts, app alerts and wherever our journalism meets the audience.
• Create and monitor reporting and KPI progress, including metrics for loyalty, engagement, relevance and other business goals.
• Be an innovative, creative thinker that is willing to experiment to support company's goals.  

Requirements:  

• Bachelor's or master’s degree in communications, journalism, marketing or related field preferred or equivalent combination of education and experience.  
• At least 5 years of newsroom experience, including management, preferably in an audience development role at a digitally-focused media organization. Journalism experience is mandatory.  
• A proven passion and experience with storytelling via social media, search and newsletters, with expertise in platforms such as Reddit, Discord, WhatsApp, Instagram, TikTok, X, Facebook, Threads and more. 
• Passion for helping news organizations distribute indispensable journalism and building trusted relationships with readers.  
• Proactive leader that can manage their time and prioritization of tasks independently.   
• Devotion to peer-to-peer training, as both a teacher and student.  

Technical specifications: 

• Experience using Google Analytics and Parse.ly or similar tools, experience with using AI to analyze data is a plus. 
• Expertise in platform-specific data tools such as Meta, TikTok, Reddit, and Salesforce is required. 
• Experience with third-party distribution tools like Hootsuite, True Anthem and Echobox is preferred. 
• Excellent communication skills, both written and verbal, to effectively convey findings and recommendations to diverse stakeholders. 
• Familiarity with news products and journalism and understanding of media analytics and ethics.

Application Instructions

We are eager to learn more about you and how you fit this role. When you apply, don’t limit your upload to a resume; show us what you’ve done. To do so, please submit:     

1. Your resume – one to two pages.
2. A cover letter that outlines how you would approach the job. 
3. Examples of at least three projects or strategies that you’re proud of and had a hand in leading in the area of audience engagement. Please include a brief description of the work, your role and any relevant KPIs or results.   

Completing these steps will ensure that your application receives the highest consideration. 

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The annualized base salary for this role will range between $93,000 and $95,000.  Base compensation is reflective of many factors, including, but not limited to, the market in which one lives/works, individual education level, skills, certifications and experience.  Note: variable compensation is not reflected in these figures and based on the role, may be applicable.