Audience Development Editor

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

This Kansas City-based editor, in partnership with the Senior Editor for Experimentation and Engagement, will dive in on strategies that grow and engage our local audience and build long-term loyalty among our subscribers.

You’ll join an audience team that is fun, creative and always looking for new ways to connect with 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.

The successful candidate is skilled at engaging with readers across our platforms, from social media to live events; has demonstrated success in growing newsletters and other news products; and has a firm command of SEO. The candidate also possesses a love of purposeful experimentation informed by data.

This editor should have a knack for juggling multiple projects, identifying opportunities for improvement and offering encouragement and guidance to colleagues.

The successful candidate will be comfortable communicating and guiding the tactics we are using to execute our audience strategy on a daily basis. This person will collaborate with editors across The Star’s newsroom and with our sister paper The Wichita Eagle.

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 meaningfully to its future.

Key responsibilities:

Collaborate with McClatchy teams to create data-driven strategies that produce audience growth and subscriber loyalty on our websites.
Train newsrooms on SEO, headline writing, and how best to reach digital and new audiences.
Coordinate and/or host live and virtual events, town halls and listening sessions to build trust with our communities.
Elevate on-site experiences for new and existing readers.
Lead an inspiring and community-driven social media strategy on Instagram, Twitter, Facebook and TikTok that creates long-term advocates for local journalism.
Execute on creative distribution plans for our high-impact journalism projects.
Curate and write newsletters, and develop pop-up newsletters.
Regularly analyze performance data to enhance our audience strategies and advise newsrooms on what’s next in digitally-focused journalism.

Qualifications:

3+ years of experience, preferably in a digital media organization
Solid news judgment
Experience in a leadership role
Reporting and editing experience
A proven track record of growing and engaging with audiences
A deep understanding of social media best practices and newsletter strategies
Must work comfortably in a job that will be fast-paced and data-driven
Occasional travel may be required
Must have reliable transportation. Must have valid driver’s license and vehicle insurance (at least minimum insurance required for the state where the employee works).