Director, Audience & Marketing

Director, Audience & Marketing - Rewire News Group

Location: Rewire News Group is a distributed, all-remote organization. The director, audience & marketing must be based within the continental U.S. and legally authorized to work in the U.S. without requiring employer sponsorship. Preference will be given to candidates in locations in which current staff operate, Colorado, DMV (Washington DC, Maryland, Virginia), Georgia, Minnesota, Illinois, New Jersey, or New York, and Pennsylvania.

Details: Full Time, Exempt, Non-Union

Rewire News Group is seeking a creative and enterprising director for audience & marketing to advance our newsroom’s mission, visibility, and voice. The successful candidate will develop an audience strategy at all levels of the marketing and conversion funnel for Rewire and execute strategies for audience growth for our website, social media channels, newsletters and podcasts. The successful candidate will embrace the opportunity to invent new strategies and tactics for reaching readers, listeners and the broader community through cutting-edge and creative approaches. A key member of the Executive Director’s leadership team, this leader will build and lead a fast-growing team devoted to growing the audience and impact of the journalism we produce. This person will partner with Rewire’s development director to grow revenue in the form of memberships, donations and advertising partnerships, and will also partner with Rewire’s editorial director to maximize readership through SEO and other audience development tactics.

Reports to: Executive Director of Rewire News Group

Key collaborative relationships: Head of Operations, Development Director, Editorial Director, Co-Chief Content Officers

Direct reports: Sr. Graphic Designer, Associate Social Media Editor (to be hired by director)

What You’ll Do

• Build and lead a best-in-class digital audience engagement team, including social media, marketing, and creator / influencer partnerships.


• Create and execute compelling marketing campaigns for our editorial coverage, podcast launches, etc., and develop distribution strategies that address a diverse array of audiences across website and mobile, social media, newsletters, podcasts, events and partnerships.


• Establish and execute a social media strategy that aligns with organizational goals in executing organic and paid marketing of content, products (website, apps, newsletters), fundraising campaigns, and organizational announcements.


• Conduct research, analyze, and communicate trends, story, and topic ideas to editorial, development and podcast teams; and to full staff on a weekly/monthly basis.


• Establish, monitor and continually evaluate Rewire’s goals and KPIs defining desired audience demographics, metrics, and business outcomes. The director is responsible for leading regular traffic meetings to report progress and to discuss strategic adjustments.


• Bring a curious and motivated attitude, coupled with a love for the Rewire audience, brand, and mission.

Qualifications

• Bachelor’s in marketing, communications, journalism or related field. Advanced degree preferred.


• A minimum of 7 years relevant industry experience with 5+ years hands-on in audience development, digital marketing and audience retention, with a focus on journalism, policy or related content areas. At least 2+ years of experience managing people.


• You are a natural teacher and are not afraid to coach your direct reports through their deliverables across multiple areas of focus, while prioritizing objectives and demands within a small, cross-functional organization. You model accountability and ownership over your own responsibilities and projects.


• Audience-first mentality: You are happily obsessed with online audiences and have a thorough understanding of audience behavior, engagement tactics and strategies, and best practices. You have strong experience building an engaged audience through newsletters, social media distribution platforms, vertical video, and events. You’re well-versed in SEO and newsletter strategy. Your knowledge of industry trends, benchmarks, and new approaches will ensure Rewire remains a contemporary in the audience development and digital marketing space.


• Ability to get things done: You’re self-motivated, clear-eyed, data-informed, and results-driven. You are a competitive spirit who looks ahead, around the corner, and to the past to create compelling, concise, and energetic social campaigns, newsletters, events, and promotional plans. You are capable of balancing multiple competing projects and priorities that deliver high quality results, and comfortable executing quickturn deliverables when necessary.


• Strong EQ: You’re both highly self-aware and perceptive toward key partner and staff relationships. You serve as a connector who is aware of every key audience initiative and can see the big picture across the company’s audience strategies. You are a clear, effective communicator to your peers, and coach/mentor to your team.


• Data savvy: You have a strong grasp of data analysis and performance metrics, so your work is naturally data-informed in resource allocation and decision-making. You bring experience using Google Analytics, Chartbeat, Parse.ly, Facebook Insights, Simplecast, YouTube Analytics, Mailchimp, Airtable, or similar tools.


• Fundraising-friendly: You’ve existed in the digital fundraising orbit and have a practical knowledge of membership revenue models and experience with audience development and engagement through events.


• Communication: You bring a collaborative, thoughtful, can-do approach to all communications with staff, peers, and partners and are constantly thinking about how to advance Rewire’s mission.


• Fun: You have a good sense of humor and understand the importance of work/life balance.


• Understanding of nonprofit media is a plus.

Your First 90 Days

30 days:

• Complete comprehensive audit of current audience channels (website analytics, social media performance, newsletter metrics, podcast analytics) and identify top opportunities for growth


• Conduct a listening tour with key stakeholders and staff


• Review current marketing campaigns, content distribution strategies, and past performance data to understand what's working and what's not


• Analyze competitor landscape and peer nonprofit news organizations to identify industry best practices and gaps in Rewire's current approach


• Attend editorial meetings and familiarize yourself with Rewire's coverage areas, editorial voice, and content calendar


• Develop a hiring plan for Rewire’s Associate Social Media Editor

60 days:

• Develop comprehensive 12-month audience growth strategy with clear KPIs for website traffic, social media engagement, newsletter subscribers, and podcast listeners


• Establish baseline metrics and define success targets for each channel (organic social, paid social, SEO, newsletters, podcasts)


• Create integrated marketing campaign plan for upcoming editorial coverage priorities in partnership with Editorial Director


• Finalize hire of Associate Social Media Editor and begin onboarding


• Present draft social media strategy (organic and paid) that aligns with organizational goals for content promotion, fundraising, and announcements

90 days:

• Launch first major integrated marketing campaign for editorial series, podcast launch, or organizational initiative with measurable goals.


• Implement regular traffic meeting cadence with dashboard reporting on audience KPIs and progress toward goals.


• Execute trend analysis process: deliver first weekly/monthly trend report to editorial, development, podcast teams and full staff.


• Demonstrate measurable improvement in at least one key channel (e.g., 10-15% growth in newsletter subscribers, improved social engagement rates, or increased organic traffic through SEO optimization).


• Establish creator/influencer partnership pilot program or outreach plan to extend Rewire's reach.


• Build collaborative workflows between your team and editorial/development teams for content promotion and fundraising campaign support.


• Present 90-day results and refined strategy to the Executive Director and leadership team, including lessons learned and strategic adjustments for months 4-6.

Compensation & Benefits:

Salary Range: $80,000 - $105,000

Competitive Medical, Dental & Vision insurance with Flexible Spending Account

401(k) Retirement Plan with an employer match

Life & Disability Insurances

Monthly remote workspace & utility reimbursement

Annual professional development stipend

Generous vacation and paid leave including, sick, floating holidays, bereavement, pregnancy loss, disability leaves, and an annual winter break between Christmas Eve & New Year’s Day.

Rewire News Group (RNG) is a 501(c)(3) nonprofit media organization and the only national publication exclusively dedicated to expert reporting on the full spectrum of reproductive and sexual health, rights, and justice. As a nonprofit, no-paywall, multiplatform newsroom, we reach hundreds of thousands of people per month across our website, social channels, newsletters, podcasts, and events. Since our launch in 2012, our core mission has remained unchanged: To combat pervasive misinformation and disinformation that threatens American democracy with rigorous original journalism, analysis, and commentary. Rewire News Group is a remote, independent organization and an equal opportunity employer. Black, Indigenous and other people of color; LGBTQIA+ people; and people with disabilities are strongly encouraged to apply. For more information about Rewire, please visit our website.