Audience Development Strategist at McClatchy in Kansas City, Missouri

Job Description:

The Kansas City Star, winner of nine Pulitzer Prizes, is seeking a creative, high-energy journalist to join our team as an Audience Development Strategist. 

Our Audience Development Strategists are embedded within desks in our newsroom and work directly with reporters and assignment editors to ensure that our local journalism is focused on meeting the needs of our growing digital audience. 

This position is based in the Kansas City metro area and reports to The Star’s Audience Development Editor. We expect these positions to work Monday-Friday schedules typically and be supplemented by a weekend editing rotation and a Chiefs game editing shift. Our team often collaborates with colleagues in other McClatchy newsrooms including The Wichita Eagle and Fort Worth Star-Telegram.

Our Audience Development Strategists are focused on three areas of audience journalism: Engaging readers, retaining readers and attracting new readers to The Star. Examples of responsibilities in each of these categories include: 

Engaging readers: 

• Use Google Trends, NewsWhip Spike and audience monitoring tools to assign coverage based on audience trends.
• Coach and collaborate with journalists on digital headlines. 
• Identify audience strategies for building and implementing promotion plans for high-impact journalism projects.
• Experiment with new tools and platforms.
• Collaborate with the AME for Engagement & Experimentation to organize events and other community outreach programming that engages our local audience around our journalism and digital products. 

Retaining readers: 

• Implement digital audience and journalistic best practices to serve our local and loyal audiences, particularly our subscribers.
• Manage, write or edit subject matter newsletters from your desk to grow and engage our broader audiences and subscribers
• Collaborate with the analytics team to craft reports for the newsroom and drive strategy. This editor should have a familiarity with interpreting audience metrics and making them actionable for reporters. 

Attracting new readers:

• Identify key new audiences, and launch engagement efforts to connect with communities.  
• Build and manage content-focused social media campaigns on Instagram, TikTok and other platforms that elevate our journalism. The ideal candidate will write sharp, concise, clean social copy to help readers understand and engage with the local news that affects their daily lives. The candidate should be prepared to coach newsrooms on the best social media practices. 
• Coach reporters and editors on SEO best practices, ensuring local and breaking news stories are surfaced for readers through search.
• Pitching key stories to partner platforms (SmartNews, Apple News)

As a member of the audience team, you will work at least one shift per week as our Lead Audience Editor during which you will determine, in collaboration with the Audience Development Editor, the best ways to show the breadth and depth of our journalism across our digital platforms. During these shifts, you will be responsible for: 

• Preparing and presenting the morning audience report for the newsroom
• Curating The Star’s AM/PM newsletters
• Sending or scheduling news alerts
• Ensuring that the breadth and depth of The Star’s reporting is being presented to our readers across platforms 

In addition to these duties, each strategist is likely to have an area of expertise, such as social media, newsletters or some other critical focus.

Keen news judgment, strong communication skills and the ability to collaborate with colleagues – both local and remote – are musts.

We ask that you bring a positive attitude, an excitement to connect with The Star’s subscribers, and a willingness to listen to community feedback.

You’ll join a team that is fun, creative and always looking for new ways to connect and inform our diverse audience across platforms. The newsroom you’ll join is deeply committed to listening to, engaging with and meeting the needs of our neighbors across the Kansas City metro area. 

Kansas City is a vibrant, large city with a high quality of life – replete with iconic professional sports teams and a world-class arts scene – and a low cost of living. It’s a fantastic place to put down roots, and this job offers the chance to contribute to its future. 

We believe that our team is stronger when we include individuals with a variety of perspectives and experiences, and we encourage candidates from all backgrounds to apply.

A successful candidate will bring many of the following: 

• A commitment to meeting the information needs of local readers.
• A willingness to represent The Star in the community and online.
• Passion for news and love for experimentation.
• Excellent communication skills, including leading training and coaching sessions around building audiences.
• A familiarity with communities in the Kansas City area.
• Familiarity with how to measure success using audience metrics and analytics.
• College degree or equivalent work experience.
• At least 1-3 years of audience engagement, strategy or reporting experience.
• Experience managing social media accounts, and working knowledge of SEO concepts and Google Trends to grow our readership, especially among potential subscribers.
• Understanding of social media best practices.
• Understanding of newsletter best practices.
• Ability to use analytics tools such as Parse.ly to make real-time decisions for elevating our journalism and developing related digital strategies.
• An independent spirit that can make decisions quickly and can handle several tasks at once.
• Excellent news judgment and a demonstrated ability to “see the story” that is going to matter to readers.
• Proven ability to work with cross-functional teams. 

What we’ll bring:
As a journalist at McClatchy, you will join a supportive, flexible, collaborative team. McClatchy strives to be an employer of choice, and our benefits package is made with this goal in mind. With a focus on health, well-being, wealth and daily life, our package options include health care coverage for employees and their families, financial protection from expected and unexpected expenses, multiple no-cost wellness resources and even coverage for four-legged friends. 

Our overall benefits package also includes a 401(k) with employer match, competitive paid time off and corporate holidays, and a variety of mental health benefits. With an excellent support team and with focus on your well-being as a top corporate strategy, McClatchy provides benefits to support you and your family in achieving your health and wellness goals. For more information on McClatchy's benefit plan, please visit McClatchyLivewell.com. 

To apply: Include a persuasive cover letter, your resume and four to six examples of your best work.

About McClatchy:

Our impact is growing every day. 30 growing markets. Over 65 million monthly readers. 57 Pulitzer Prizes. A strong portfolio of dynamic partnerships and smart investments. Our award-winning journalism, digital reach, and commitment to innovative growth have never been stronger. 

As a member of the McClatchy family, you are part of a flexible, empowering, and exciting culture dedicated to creating a work/life balance and consistent opportunities for growth—a place where you have a voice and the ability to impact our future. It’s an exciting time to be here. Our company is experiencing the most transformative period in its history. We’re growing rapidly in the digital space and delivering award-winning journalism in innovative ways.

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