Audience Engagement Producer

Date Posted	August 06, 2024
Industry	Newspapers, Digital Media, Nonprofit
Specialty	Local News
Telecommute?	Hybrid
Job Status	Full-time

Description:

About the role

Cityside Journalism Initiative, a pioneering nonprofit organization devoted to building community and strengthening democracy through local news, seeks a creative, hands-on Audience Engagement Producer.

Launched in 2020, Cityside is home to three highly regarded local news sites in the San Francisco Bay Area: Berkeleyside, now in its 15th year, The Oaklandside, which launched in 2020 and Richmondside which made its debut in June 2024. At its core, Cityside produces civic-minded journalism that helps locals engage with and enjoy their city. We want both our newsrooms and our storytelling to reflect the diversity of the cities we cover. Our reporting reaches an average of 500,000 unique visitors a month across our three local news websites and tens of thousands more across social media accounts and newsletters. With our award-winning journalism, Cityside is often viewed as a beacon of light in the struggling local news ecosystem.

We are now looking for an enterprising Audience Engagement Producer with a journalism background to help us grow and deepen our relationships with the communities we serve in Berkeley, Oakland and Richmond.

Our overarching goal is to help residents be informed about, and be able to engage with, their local communities by providing reliable news and resources that are relevant to their daily lives. The Audience Engagement Producer will produce social media and newsletter content, enhance SEO for our stories, work on digital story packaging and data analysis, and support our direct community outreach initiatives, including live events. They will collaborate with a stellar group of journalists across our three newsrooms, as well as Cityside leaders.

The Audience Engagement Producer will report to, and work closely with, Cityside’s Audience Engagement Editor.

The job is based in the Bay Area.

What you’ll do:

• Produce engaging social media content (including short, mobile videos and infographics) with sharp and compelling writing and visuals that will resonate with and help grow target audiences for Berkeleyside, The Oaklandside and Richmondside

• Manage social media and other third-party platforms, scheduling content and monitoring performance

• Support in the production of Cityside’s newsletters

• Enhance the SEO and reader-experience on news articles

• Collaborate with newsroom editors and reporters on ways to reach new and existing audiences

• Support Cityside and its newsrooms at community and fundraising events

• Contribute ideas to Cityside’s greater audience strategy

• Other duties as assigned

What you’ll need to succeed: 

• 2-4 years of newsroom experience, preferably in an audience engagement role

• Excellent social media production skills, especially for Instagram and TikTok

• Video editing

• Ability to work with visual content, including photography, in powerful ways

• A good eye for graphic design

• Understanding of SEO and digital news production

• Excellent writing chops

• A collaborative approach, great communication skills and an openness to different perspectives

• An interest in experimenting with new approaches to reach audience goals

• An independent spirit with the ability to make decisions quickly, handle several tasks at once and deliver on deadline

• A solid understanding of analytics and how to use metrics to make content decisions and translate data into actionable recommendations

• Good news judgment and an understanding of journalistic ethics

We’re especially interested in candidates who…

• Have a background in local journalism

• Speak and write fluent Spanish 

• Are familiar with communities in Oakland, Berkeley and Richmond

• Have used WordPress, Mailchimp, Canva, Adobe suite, Parse.ly, Google Analytics

Cityside is an equal opportunity employer committed to building an organization that is diverse and a work environment that is safe and inclusive for all employees. We recognize that people of color, gender-expansive people, members of the LGBTQ+ community, and people from working-class backgrounds have historically been underrepresented in journalism. We believe that a diverse workforce is essential to understanding and representing the communities that we serve. 

We encourage candidates from all spectrums of race, ethnicity, national origin, age, sexual orientation, gender identity, religion, socio-economic background, and levels of physical ability to apply. Cityside also values a wide range of experience and encourages candidates to submit their application even if they do not meet all of the preferred qualifications.

What we offer

• The salary range for this position is $70,000-80,000 per year

• $1,000 a year in professional development stipends

• Medical, dental, and vision coverage

• 401(k) retirement plan with a 4% company match

• 20 paid personal days

• 12 paid sick days

• 13 paid holidays

• 5 additional paid days for an end-of-the-year break between Christmas Day and New Year

• Parental and caregiver leave of up to six months

• Life insurance coverage