Audience Engagement Manager-Institute for Nonprofit News
Do you care deeply about informing and empowering people through news? Do you enjoy fostering relationships, gaining insights and serving readers? Are you excited to help build the future of nonprofit news in California?
Then we urge you to apply to be CalMatters’ Audience Engagement Manager.
In almost eight years, CalMatters has become the largest newsroom covering California policy and politics. We’re a nonprofit, nonpartisan organization, giving our coverage at no cost to more than 250 media outlets. Over a million people visit our website each month, and 150,000 subscribers receive our morning newsletter.
We’re looking for someone who will cultivate meaningful engagement with readers across our audience channels by listening, engaging, discovering insights, producing accurate and captivating invitations to participate with our content, and sharing the impacts of our work.
You’ll work closely with our Community Engagement Manager to reach more Californians where they are and to deepen relationships with people who read, listen and learn from us. You’ll also build connections and collaborations across CalMatters’ talented editorial, product and development teams.
This is an amazing opportunity to drive toward exciting goals with some of the best people working in nonprofit news. It’s also a chance to test bold new ideas for engaging with and serving community members that will be shared across the state and nation.
You’ll report to the Director of Membership and Engagement, who will support your journey on expanding our reach and impact.
You may work from anywhere in California with occasional visits to our Sacramento headquarters.
Primary Job Functions
Listen:
- Listen to what our audiences and other relevant media are sharing (and saying about us), and flag relevant insights within CalMatters.
- Collaborate with the newsroom on SEO, breaking news dissemination and trending topics to resurface existing content.
Engage:
- Deepen engagement with audiences by positing questions/polls, inviting comments and asking followup questions.
- Lead CalMatters staff in connecting with audiences through tips and training.
- Find ways to grow audience involvement (inviting people to click and read our work, re-share our posts, contribute op-eds, send us story tips, etc.).
- Collaborate internally on encouraging people across our channels (web/email/social/app/etc.) to become a subscriber (email/sms) and to participate in events.
- Share existing internal brand marketing assets (news, testimonials, about-us information) to audience members for membership asks.
Discover:
- Collect and forward relevant audience insights (questions, concerns, feedback, story tips, etc.) to the right people within CalMatters.
- Review audience metrics regularly (a few weekly, a few more monthly) to adapt and improve our work.
Produce:
- Craft accurate, clear and engaging visual and text representations of our content for social media channels, considering each channel’s unique audiences and encouraging people to take action (like/love, comment, share, save, click) to improve our reach via algorithms.
- Lead the CalMatters SMS (text) channel, sending our latest and greatest content, inviting dialogue, performing customer service, increasing subscribers and building topic segmentation.
- Collaborate on sharing unique and valuable insights with peers.
The successful candidate will likely have:
- Three or more years of experience in social media.
- Journalism experience.
- A passion for engaging with and serving readers.
- Experience in crafting accurate and engaging visual and text invitations to learn and participate in news stories.
- Ability to thrive in a fast-paced, multi-tasking and collaborative environment.
- Experience crafting visual elements to represent content.
Bonus Skills:
- Proficiency in Spanish.
- Experience in building video stories, including filming and editing.
- Experience in understanding and sharing knowledge of SEO best practices to expand readership.
- Experience in guiding readers along a funnel or customer journey towards increasing habit, subscribing and donating.
Compensation and Benefits:
The salary range for this position is $65,000 to $80,000.
CalMatters offers a complete benefits package with medical, dental and vision insurance (we cover 90% of the cost for employees and 70% for dependents) from a range of HMO and PPO providers. We’ll match contributions of up to 4% of your salary to our 401(k) program, provide life insurance at no cost, and give you an allowance for personal use of your cell phone and a budget for professional development opportunities like classes and conferences.
We are an expanding and collaborative newsroom, successfully forging a new model for sustainable, intelligent, nonprofit journalism. We’re committed to reflecting the people of the state we serve and especially encourage members of underrepresented communities to apply. If you’re interested, please provide a resume, a cover letter that outlines how you would approach the job, and links to online samples of your work.