Job Description:

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

This Kansas City-based manager will report to The Star’s Assistant Managing Editor for Engagement & Experimentation and collaborate on strategies that grow and engage our local audience and build long-term loyalty among our subscribers. Job No. 1: Working to ensure The Star’s journalism meets the needs of our growing local digital audience.

This editor will lead a team of audience journalists who are energized by experimentation and the constant search for new and creative ways to connect with our diverse readership across platforms. This team is embedded in desks across our newsroom and responsible for executing our digital audience strategy and our daily efforts to reach and engage digital readers. 

This editor will also have the opportunity to edit 2-3 reporters around topic areas consistent with the experience of the person hired for the role.

Our newsroom is focused on three areas of audience journalism: Engaging readers, retaining readers and attracting new readers to The Star. Examples of audience team 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)

The newsroom you’ll join is deeply committed to listening to, engaging with and meeting the needs of our neighbors throughout the Kansas City metro area. Keen news judgment, strong communication skills and the ability to collaborate with colleagues – both local and remote – are musts. 

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 relative to cities its size. 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.

The successful candidate will bring many of the following: 

• A track record of experimenting and iterating, quickly and often.
• At least 3-5 years of audience engagement, strategy, reporting or editing experience, with at least 1 year of experience leading a team.
• Strong word editing and organizational skills.
• Familiarity with digital planning and packaging.
• Excellent news judgment and journalism ethics.
• Strong collaborative instincts and a love of teamwork.
• Comfort with a job that will be demanding, fast-paced and constantly evolving.
• 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.
• 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 to make real-time decisions for elevating our journalism and developing related digital strategies.
• Ability to 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.

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