Senior Digital Coach
The Cedar Rapids, Iowa-based Gazette is looking for a Senior Digital Coach to lead newsroom efforts to build digital audiences through digital publishing practices and the use of subscription analytics. This role helps coach newsroom staff, while continuously experimenting and using the results to help inform our news products and audience experience.
This editor manages a team of digital editors, a social video editor and collaborates across the newsroom to publish news on our award-winning website, through newsletters and social media and all digital channels. You’ll also use news alerts/notifications to publish and connect audiences with content, while looking for insights and trends using analytics to help inform our daily news reports. You should be comfortable evangelizing digital best practices throughout the newsroom. You’ll also be comfortable collaborating with our product team and developers to refine platforms, newsroom tools and sites. You’ll have a strong understanding of journalism ethics and foster a culture of experimenting and coaching. You’ll help lead digital content strategies through various means – dayparting, storytelling tools and old-fashioned ability to tell good stories.
The Gazette, which is centered in Iowa’s second largest city of Cedar Rapids and started in 1883, has a long-standing tradition of independence and is employee-owned. Our ideal candidate will be passionate about working for a locally-owned journalism organization that pushes hard to grow digital audience. We want someone focused on finding solutions to challenges, even if it means working outside of our organization to build collaborations.
Responsibilities include:
- Managing a team of digital editors responsible for our website, app, news alerts and social media. They also write news alerts, edit newsletters, produce podcasts and optimize headlines and perform A/B tests for content.
- Monitor analytics through multiple tools to listen and develop content strategies and coaching based on the insights.
- Help plan digital coverage of major news events and assist in digital strategies for major breaking news events.
- Collaborate across the newsroom and product teams to continuously improve the customer/audience experience.
- Help develop training to advance the digital skills and knowledge of our news organization.
- Advocating for our digital audience’s needs.
- Maintains focus on developing in-depth, inclusive and contextual journalism utilizing an array of digital tools.
- Serve on newsroom leadership team, company initiatives and professional committees as needed.
- Coordinate and prioritize newsroom best practices to help build habits with audiences, gain or retain subscribers while seeking to build diverse audiences.
- Prioritize team efforts and newsroom best practices to build habit with audiences to gain new subscribers, retain existing subscribers and build new, diverse audiences.
Qualifications:
Ideal candidate will work to build teams and shows a desire to mentor and lead. Effective at prioritizing a number of tasks, but focusing on value and quality of work. Effective communicator that motivates team to do their best work. Should have experience working with Google Analytics (or other behavioral analytics), Chartbeat and other platforms. Must have an understanding of newsroom operations, be a strong collaborator, understand news audience behaviors and have a passion for journalism. You should enjoy coaching and teaching skills and must be able to jump between tasks quickly and in an organized fashion. You must understand graphics, photos, data and video as well as audience engagement. Ideal candidate will have at least five years of experience in a newsroom and should have prior experience managing people as well as leading digital initiatives. Ideal candidate will have a degree in journalism, communications (or related field) or in computer science (or related field).
EOE. Pre-employment drug screen and background check required.