Audience Editor, Entertainment

Gannett; McLean (VA); On-site; USD 93,000 - 95,000; Full time

Job summary

USA TODAY is seeking an innovative Audience Editor in Entertainment to lead audience engagement for our coverage of movies, TV, music and creators.

The role blends data insights with storytelling across social platforms and newsletters, driving growth, engagement and revenue opportunities. Based in New York or Los Angeles, you will manage a small team and collaborate with newsroom leadership.

Qualifications

• Bachelor's or master's degree in communications, journalism, marketing or related field.
• At least 5 years newsroom experience, including management.
• Proven storytelling on social media and newsletters across multiple platforms.

Responsibilities

• Develop strategies to rapidly achieve audience growth on search, social and newsletters.
• Monitor analytics and translate data into action steps for journalists.
• Lead audience planning for major events, tentpoles and breaking news.
• Create, edit or optimize audience-focused content during major events and breaking news when needed.
• Partner with the content monetization team to grow audience on social media and distributed channels.
• Manage a team of content creators ensuring consistent brand strategy and execution across platforms.
• Create and monitor reporting and KPI progress, including loyalty and engagement metrics.
• Be innovative and willing to experiment to support company goals.

Skills

Audience growth

Data-driven decision making

Social media strategy

Storytelling on platforms

Team leadership

Newsroom collaboration

Education

Bachelor's or Master's degree in Communications, Journalism, Marketing or related field

Tools

Google Analytics

Parse.ly

Meta Insights

TikTok

Reddit

Salesforce

Hootsuite

Echobox

Job description

Audience Editor, Entertainment

USA TODAY is looking for an innovative, high-energy, data-driven Audience Editor to lead audience engagement strategy for our Entertainment coverage.

As a key member of our reimagined USA TODAY audience team, you will utilize your expertise to enhance audience growth, engagement and revenue generation for USA TODAY Entertainment. This role is right for you if you're passionate about entertainment, from movies and music to television, celebrity news, books and content creators. You understand how audiences discover and engage with entertainment coverage and continually explore new opportunities across social media, video, newsletters, search and emerging platforms. You combine strong news judgment with audience insights to test new approaches, identify opportunities and turn successful ideas into repeatable strategies.

The ideal candidate is as comfortable interpreting data and platform analytics as they are connecting with audiences on TikTok, Reddit, Instagram or through a newsletter. You understand that the audience is at the heart of everything we do. You will also be expected to monitor trends in the broader creator industry and identify ways to translate relevant tactics into strategies for our newsrooms.

This highly-collaborative role will be accountable for translating broader business and newsroom strategies into actionable steps for the journalists on the Entertainment team. The successful candidate will oversee a small team of content creators to put our best foot forward at every step of the audience journey. As such, you should be comfortable leading through both direct management and influence, building productive relationships with peers and partners throughout the organization.

The right editor will embrace the opportunity to introduce new ideas, improve established practices and help colleagues adapt to a rapidly evolving audience landscape. You will bring energy, resilience and a commitment to turning strategy into measurable action.

This role may require working extended hours, including evenings, weekends and holidays, sometimes unexpectedly, when news requires it.

This role must be based in New York or Los Angeles.

Responsibilities

• Develop strategies, workflows and best practices to rapidly achieve audience growth on search, social and newsletters in collaboration with the greater USA TODAY audience team and the USA TODAY Entertainment leadership team.
• Monitor analytics for USA TODAY Entertainment both on platform and on social, in newsletters and alerts, translating that data into action steps for journalists on your direct team and on the broader Entertainment team.
• Lead audience planning for major events, tentpoles and breaking news, determining how our journalism should be packaged, distributed and presented at each stage of the audience journey.
• Create, edit or optimize audience-focused content during major events and breaking news when needed.
• Partner with the content monetization team on new efforts to monetize our journalism and grow audience on social media and distributed platform channels.
• Manage a team of content creators charged with ensuring consistent brand strategy, voice and execution across platforms for USA TODAY Entertainment, including social channels, newsletters, section fronts, app alerts and wherever our journalism meets the audience.
• Create and monitor reporting and KPI progress, including metrics for loyalty, engagement, relevance and other business goals.
• Be an innovative, creative thinker that is willing to experiment to support company's goals.

Requirements

• Bachelor's or master's degree in communications, journalism, marketing or related field preferred or equivalent combination of education and experience.
• At least 5 years of newsroom experience, including management, preferably in an audience development role at a digitally-focused media organization with expertise in entertainment. Journalism experience is mandatory.
• A proven passion and experience with storytelling via social media, search and newsletters, with expertise in platforms such as Reddit, Discord, WhatsApp, Instagram, TikTok, YouTube, X, Facebook, Threads and more.
• Passion for helping news organizations distribute indispensable journalism and building trusted relationships with readers.
• Proactive leader who can manage their time and prioritize tasks independently.
• Devotion to peer-to-peer training, as both a teacher and student.

Technical specifications

• Experience using Google Analytics and Parse.ly or similar tools, experience with using AI to analyze data is a plus.
• Expertise in platform-specific data tools such as Meta, TikTok, Reddit, and Salesforce is required.
• Experience with third-party distribution tools like Hootsuite, True Anthem and Echobox is preferred.
• Excellent communication skills, both written and verbal, to effectively convey findings and recommendations to diverse stakeholders.
• Familiarity with news products and journalism and understanding of media analytics and ethics.

The annualized base salary for this role will range between $93,000 and $95,000. Base compensation is reflective of many factors, including, but not limited to, the market in which one lives/works, individual education level, skills, certifications and experience. Note: variable compensation is not reflected in these figures and based on the role, may be applicable.