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Floodlight Director of Audience

SUMMARY

Floodlight is hiring a director of audience to design and oversee a multiyear growth strategy to expand our audience through direct channels and publishing partnerships. This position will help Floodlight understand and define its audiences and target them. We seek to broaden and deepen our connections with readers, listeners and viewers by promoting our journalism across mediums and with a wide range of outlets.

Our primary goal is impact. We care about not just how many people read a story but who they are and how their changed understanding might help build a more equitable world.

ABOUT FLOODLIGHT

Floodlight is a nonprofit, independent newsroom that investigates the powers stalling climate action.

Since launching in 2021, Floodlight has collaborated with local and national publications including NPR, The Guardian, Grist, This American Life, the Los Angeles Times, the Texas Tribune, the Louisiana Illuminator and Capital B. Floodlight stories have reached millions.

Floodlight’s model has shown how collaborative journalism can have a proven impact. Our reporting with NPR about how power company consultants swayed elections, spied on journalists and bought media coverage was followed by the departure of two CEOs. The stories were seen nationwide by millions, and they were reposted by more than 2,000 outlets. They were finalists for Harvard’s Goldsmith Prize for Investigative Reporting.

Floodlight’s reporting is nonpartisan and unbiased and adheres to the standards of the Institute for Nonprofit News. While the organization is supported by philanthropic grants from foundations and gifts from individuals, Floodlight retains full authority over editorial content, and our news judgments are made independently and not on the basis of donor support. Read more about our standards & supporters.

Once you’re hired, our team of eight will include four reporters, an editor-in-chief, a chief of operations and an executive director. We all work remotely from our homes, with occasional travel for in-person meetings and industry conferences and events.

ABOUT THE ROLE

The ideal candidate will share Floodlight’s enthusiasm for collaborative journalism and have a clear vision of how to evolve to best serve diverse audiences in a dynamic news field. As a three-and a-half-year-old organization, we are still shaping our audience strategy. We are eager for this position to be instrumental in that evolution. We expect the role will evolve and grow with Floodlight and therefore will require some flexibility in daily duties.

For its first three years, Floodlight published exclusively through local and national publishing partners. In April 2024, we launched a new website and began publishing directly and making almost all of our stories available for republication. In 2024, we doubled our production, distributing stories to more than 60 news outlets. We now seek to build on that growth to expand our direct audience while continuing to strategically co-report and co-publish with partner outlets, especially for our larger investigations. You will help us understand and target three core audiences: local readers impacted by our reporting, national readers interested in climate accountability and key contacts at partner publications.

You should be comfortable working closely with reporters and editors from the earliest steps of the editorial process to help shape which stories we pursue and how we report, produce, publish and promote them. This position will also work closely with journalists at external partner organizations and will represent Floodlight in those relationships.

While we will prioritize candidates that have served in audience roles within newsrooms, we will also consider applicants with a background in digital strategy, marketing, reporting or editing.

RESPONSIBILITIES

  • Craft and oversee our audience strategy (direct and partner audiences) 
  • Conduct qualitative and quantitative audience research to define our local and national audiences
  • Work closely with reporters and editors to shape editorial content and story rollout
  • Manage social media strategy and produce copy, graphics and video 
  • Assist with story production, including posting stories to the website and prepping emails
  • Help develop new publication partnerships and deepen existing ones 
  • Assist with collecting and organizing impact and analytics data, both internally and from partners
  • Develop and oversee reader surveys and communicate findings to the team
  • Develop and test new content forms and features, including for our newsletter 
  • Manage reader events 
  • Oversee Floodlight’s marketing strategy, budget and ads 
  • Develop and implement plans to promote Floodlight reporting on TV and radio

ABILITIES

  • A deep curiosity for understanding readers/listeners/viewers and adapting to meet their needs
  • Proven track record of building and diversifying audience
  • Strong editorial judgment and skills
  • A keen understanding of the media landscape (digital, radio and TV) and the types of reporting that interest partner outlets 
  • An eye for how to nationalize a local story 
  • A team-player mentality 
  • Eagerness to advance the organization’s mission 
  • Strong interpersonal skills 
  • Strong collaborative skills as a lead liaison with partner media organizations
  • Exceptional organizational and project management skills with a fine attention to detail
  • Exceptional communication skills
  • Self starter who is highly motivated and resourceful
  • Well versed in SEO and email newsletter strategy
  • Familiar with at least some of the tools we use — including (but not limited to) Ghost, Plausible, Google Analytics, Outpost, Critical Mention — and has ideas about others we should be using

SALARY AND BENEFITS

  • The salary for this position is commensurate with experience, starting at $100,000.
  • Floodlight provides 25 days of PTO, plus 12 paid holidays, 10 days of medical/emergency/bereavement leave and 12 weeks of paid parental leave.
  • To give staff maximum flexibility for choosing appropriate health insurance plans, Floodlight reimburses health insurance premiums and other qualified health expenses up to the federal maximum (currently $529 per month for an individual and $1,067 per month for an individual and their family).
  • Floodlight provides a retirement 401(k) plan match of up to 4% on employee contributions to a pre- or post-tax plan.

We know there are great candidates who might not check all these boxes, or who possess important skills we haven’t thought of. If that’s you, don’t hesitate to apply and tell us about yourself. We also encourage members of traditionally underrepresented communities to apply, including people of color, LGBTQ people and people with disabilities.

TO APPLY

Apply by Sunday, January 19, 2025.

APPLY