Editorial Insights Analyst

South China Morning Post Publishers Ltd; Hong Kong; On-site; HKD 480,000 - 640,000; Full time

Job summary

South China Morning Post Publishers Ltd is seeking an Editorial Insights Analyst to help our newsroom understand what drives reader engagement. You will work with desks, product, data and audience teams to translate data into actionable newsroom decisions.

You will use AI and data tools to answer desk questions, explain results in plain English, and guide editors on how to act on them. This role requires strong editorial instincts, attention to detail, and excellent English communication.

Qualifications

• At least two years in an editorial, content marketing or paid content role with hands-on tasks.
• Passion for journalism and sense of what makes a story work for readers.
• Analytical mindset; question results and seek evidence.

Responsibilities

• Answer newsroom questions and suggest next steps.
• Analyze a desk's coverage to understand reader response and plan next moves.
• In advance of big events, show editors what worked before and what to plan.
• Send pre-reads before desk meetings and follow up with recaps.
• Check data for weekly audience briefing and draft its summary.
• Compare our coverage with competitors to identify new approaches.
• Explain findings in plain language and create helpful explainers.
• Track changes as desks implement recommendations.

Skills

Editorial experience

Analytical mindset

Attention to detail

English fluency

Plain language communication

Curiosity

Editors collaboration

Tools

SQL

Analytics tools

Job description

Editorial Intelligence, part of the Data & Digital team, helps the South China Morning Post's newsroom turn evidence about its readers into decisions editors can act on. We work directly with desks, and with the product, data and audience teams, on how coverage performs, what readers respond to and what to do next.

We built our own AI analysis system on the company's data. AI writes and runs the queries, so you can spend your time judging whether the results make sense and what they mean for the newsroom. You will work directly with the team's lead.

Purpose of the position:

We are looking for an editorial insights analyst who is passionate about journalism, wants to understand why some stories find their readers while others don't, and is keen to help front-line editors and journalists put that knowledge to use. You have worked in a newsroom or content team, you know what it takes to get a story from idea to publication, and you care about what happens to it after that. You will take questions from desks, use AI and data tools to find the answers, and explain to editors in plain English what the results mean and how to act on them.

In this role, you will:

• Answer questions from the newsroom, such as why coverage did better or worse than expected, and suggest what to do next.
• Analyse a desk's coverage to show what its readers respond to and what the desk could try next.
• Before big planned events, such as summits and elections, show desks what worked before and what to plan.
• Send pre-reads before desk meetings, and follow up afterwards with recaps and answers.
• Check the data for our weekly audience briefing and draft its summary, showing what editors can act on.
• Compare our coverage with competitors' to find approaches we could try and gaps we could fill.
• Help reporters and editors understand our metrics and act on them, through explainers, cheatsheets and glossaries.
• Track what desks do with our recommendations and what changes as a result.

Skills and Experience that will lead to success:

• At least two years in an editorial, content marketing or paid content role, with hands-on work such as finding news, writing, copy-editing, crafting headlines or deciding angles.
• A passion for journalism and a sense of what makes a story work for readers.
• An analytical mindset: you question the results you get and go back for evidence.
• An eye for errors in data: you spot rows, values or results that can't be right.
• Daily use of AI tools for research, drafting or checking, and the habit of checking what they give back rather than trusting it.
• Attention to detail: numbers that match across a document, following the brief, consistent wording.
• Excellent written and spoken English, and the ability to explain findings in plain language.
• Based in Hong Kong.

You don't need to write SQL. You do need to spot when results can't be right. We will teach you the methods and checks we use on data, how to answer the question a desk actually asked, and how to write findings in plain English.

Nice to have:

• Experience with analytics tools and data languages like SQL.
• Experience building simple AI workflows.
• Cantonese or Mandarin, and familiarity with Hong Kong and mainland China news.

Work location will be at Causeway Bay office.

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