Associate Producer, Ark News Daily

Ark Media; New York (NY); Hybrid; USD 59,000 - 80,000; Full time

Job summary

Ark Media is seeking an Associate Producer for Ark News Daily. Remote in the United States. You will own the show's research, sourcing, tape, and forward planning, ensuring every story is ready for the daily planning meeting.

You will also contribute to the Weekend Edition and serve as trained backup for teammates. You will manage research and interview preparation, verify sound bites, and help publish episodes on a tight deadline, with the team playing across multiple US time zones.

Qualifications

• 2 to 4 years of professional experience in journalism, news production, or editorial work, ideally in audio, radio, podcasts, or video.
• Excellent written and spoken English, with the ability to write and edit to publication standard for an American audience.
• Experience finding, booking, and interviewing sources and experts.
• Audio production experience: recording interviews, cutting tape, and assembling rough edits.
• Authorized to work in the United States.

Responsibilities

• Maintain forward-looking editorial calendar with upcoming events, announcements, elections, anniversaries, and expected decisions.
• Keep a bank of evergreen and backup stories to avoid starting the day from scratch.
• Begin research and line up contributors before predictable stories break.
• Maintain directory of trusted sources, experts, and contributors with notes on reliability.
• Keep story notes, transcripts, audio, and source material organized and findable in Airtable and shared drive.
• Close each day by preparing notes and links for the next morning.
• Come to daily planning meetings with story ideas and assess usability of tape and availability of experts for each story.
• Research, report, and write assigned stories using multiple credible sources and fact-checks.
• Identify, contact, and schedule experts and contributors and prepare questions and background for each interview.
• Transcribe interviews and add full transcripts to story notes and mark best moments.
• Send guests an invitation to join The Fold after recording.

Skills

News judgment

Research skills

Interviewing

Audio production

Written English

Organization

Tools

Descript

DaVinci Resolve

Audio Hijack

Adobe Enhance

Riverside

Airtable

Job description

Associate Producer, Ark News Daily

• Location: Remote (United States)
• Reports to: Producer, Ark News Daily
• Department: Content
• Employment type: Full-time. The first 90 days are an introductory period, with a review at the end.
• Compensation: $59,000 to $80,000 per year, depending on location and experience, plus 401(k)
• Schedule: Sunday through Thursday on Eastern Time production hours, including evenings. Recording and publishing run late in the Eastern evening, which can suit candidates on the West Coast or in Hawaii. Candidates in any US time zone are welcome.

About Ark Media

Ark Media is a growing podcast network covering Israel, Jewish life, geopolitics, culture, and current events. Our shows include Call Me Back with Dan Senor, Ark News Daily, Chosen People Problems, and For Heaven's Sake. We also publish a newsletter and run The Fold, our members' community.

About Ark News Daily

Ark News Daily is our daily news podcast. Each episode covers 2-3 stories about Israel and/or the Jewish world. The show publishes every weekday, plus a Weekend Edition for Ark+ members.

About the role

The Associate Producer is the fourth member of a small Ark News Daily team, working alongside the show's editor, producer, and host. You own the show's research, sourcing, tape, and forward planning, so every story reaches the daily planning meeting ready to report. You also work on the Weekend Edition and serve as trained backup for both teammates. Expect about 60 percent daily news work, 20 percent Weekend Edition, and 20 percent coverage.

Responsibilities

Forward planning and newsroom organization

• Maintain the forward-looking editorial calendar of future story ideas: upcoming events, announcements, elections, anniversaries, and expected decisions.
• Keep a bank of evergreen and backup stories, including ideas considered and deferred, so the team never starts the day from scratch.
• Begin research and line up contributors before predictable stories break.
• Maintain the directory of trusted sources, experts, and contributors, with notes on reliability and past experience.
• Keep story notes, transcripts, audio, and source material organized and findable in Airtable and the shared drive.
• Close each day by preparing notes and links for the next morning.

Daily news and reporting

• Come to the daily planning meeting with story ideas, both same-day news and evergreen pitches.
• For each proposed story, assess whether usable tape exists, whether an expert is available, and whether it can be reported well by deadline.
• Recommend contingency stories.
• Research, report, and write assigned stories, using multiple credible sources.
• Fact-check stories, including the sourcing and attribution of every sound bite.
• Interviews and tape
• Identify, contact, and schedule experts and contributors, and prepare questions and background for each interview.
• Conduct focused expert interviews and request targeted sound bites from regular contributors.
• Apply recording best practices on every interview and sound bite, and coach contributors who record themselves to do the same. Keep enhancement within house limits, and leave out tape that needs heavy repair.
• Find news clips, archival tape, and public statements to include in stories, as well as moments from the Call Me Back archive.
• Transcribe interviews and source audio, add full transcripts to the story notes, and mark the best moments.
• After each guest recording, send the guest an invitation to join The Fold and a link to the episode they appear in.

Weekend Edition

• Pitch one 7- to 10-minute story each week, with a central idea, framing, structure, and proposed voices.
• Report the selected story: book and pre-interview the main guest and gather found audio such as archival clips, social video, news clips, and ambient sound.
• Deliver a complete, production-ready script to the Senior Producer by Tuesday, written for the host's voice.
• On Wednesday, production day, finalize the script with the Senior Producer, log takes during the host recording, assemble the rough cut with host track and sound bites, and hand off to the audio editor.
• Draft show notes, including recommended articles, books, films, podcasts, and organizations.

Coverage and production

• Take regular scheduled shifts covering for the editor and the producer, so stepping in when either is out is routine.
• On scheduled coverage days, lead the daily planning meeting and write the lead story.
• Run host recording sessions as needed: direct delivery, track takes and pickups, and document which to use.
• Package and publish episodes: titles, story headlines, show notes, metadata, scheduling, and a final check that the episode appears correctly in the feed.

The right person

News judgment comes first. You can look at a crowded news cycle and quickly see what matters to our audience, what the interesting question is, and who we should call. You also judge the reporting itself: which sources are credible, where coverage is slanted or thin, and what still needs confirming.

You write clean, conversational copy for the ear. You are comfortable saying a story is not working yet, and then helping figure out why.

You are organized and build systems the whole team uses. You own your deliverables and hit deadlines without reminders. You use AI tools to work faster and verify everything they produce.

Qualifications

• 2 to 4 years of professional experience in journalism, news production, or editorial work, ideally in audio, radio, podcasts, or video.
• Published reporting and writing, with samples written for spoken delivery.
• Excellent written and spoken English, with the ability to write and edit to publication standard for an American audience.
• Strong research skills: working across multiple sources, judging credibility, and resolving conflicting accounts.
• Experience finding, booking, and interviewing sources and experts.
• Audio production experience: recording interviews, cutting tape, and assembling rough edits.
• Strong working knowledge of Israel, the Middle East, and American Jewish life.
• Regular evening availability. The show records around 7 PM ET and publishes later in the evening, and breaking news can push that later.
• Authorized to work in the United States.
• A plus: experience with Descript, DaVinci Resolve, Audio Hijack, Adobe Enhance, Riverside, or Airtable, and the ability to read Hebrew news sources.

What success looks like

• The team works from a current calendar and a bank of ready stories.
• Every proposed story arrives at the daily planning meeting with its angle, tape, and sources already assessed.
• Sound bites are recorded cleanly, transcribed accurately, and properly attributed.
• The Weekend Edition script reaches the Senior Producer complete by Tuesday, every week.
• When the editor or producer is out, the show publishes on time at full quality.
• Anyone on the team can find past reporting, audio, and contacts in Airtable and the shared drive.