Content Acquisition Manager

Law & Crime; United States; In loco; USD 120.000 - 180.000; Tempo pieno

Descrizione del lavoro

Law & Crime is seeking a Content Acquisition Manager (FOIA & Public Records) to lead a four-person team in securing primary-source materials behind major legal and true crime stories.

You will oversee FOIA, state open-records, and court-records requests, expand coverage with public agencies, and ensure compliance with public records laws and company standards. Strong news judgment and leadership are essential.

Competenze

• 3+ years of experience filing FOIA and state public records requests in a newsroom, investigative reporting, or media environment.
• Working knowledge of court systems and processes for obtaining filings, exhibits, and evidence.
• Experience managing and motivating a team in a deadline-driven, high-volume environment.
• Strong news judgment and ability to prioritize stories and records based on editorial relevance and audience interest.
• Excellent organizational skills, with the ability to manage multiple active requests, deadlines, and escalations.
• Strong written and verbal communication, relationship management, and negotiation skills.
• Comfort working with request portals, court records databases, project management systems, and newsroom workflows.

Mansioni

• Monitor breaking news, trending cases, and emerging stories to identify valuable footage, records, and other primary-source content.
• Develop daily acquisition priorities based on editorial strategy, audience interest, and anticipated content demand.
• Translate leadership priorities into actionable requests and recommend the cases, agencies, and asset types that warrant investment.
• Move quickly from news identification to filing, pursuing high-priority assets before competitors.

Conoscenze

FOIA experience

Newsroom background

Team management

Editorial judgment

Organizational skills

Communication skills

Public records portals

Strumenti

GovQA

NextRequest

Descrizione del lavoro

Law&Crime is the leading platform for legal and true crime content, delivering live trial coverage, legal analysis, breaking crime news, podcasts, documentaries, and creator-driven programming to millions of viewers across digital, cable, FAST, and streaming platforms.

Founded by award-winning journalist Dan Abrams, Law&Crime reaches more than 12 million YouTube subscribers and generates billions of views across its growing portfolio of brands and channels. As we continue to expand our coverage and audience reach, we are looking for talented professionals who can help secure the original records and footage behind our most compelling stories.

About the Role

Law&Crime and Court TV are seeking a Content Acquisition Manager (FOIA & Public Records) to lead the team responsible for securing primary-source materials behind major legal and true crime stories, including body-camera footage, interrogation video, 911 calls, police reports, crime scene photos, and court filings.

This role oversees a team of four records specialists, setting daily priorities, identifying emerging cases, and driving the acquisition of timely, high-impact content. The manager partners with leadership and content teams across YouTube, social, linear television, and production to ensure the right assets are obtained and delivered when they are needed.

The ideal candidate combines hands-on FOIA and public records expertise with strong news judgment, audience awareness, and the ability to lead a fast-moving, high-volume operation. Our goal is to be the first and most trusted source for the original records behind the cases our audiences follow.

Responsibilities

• Monitor breaking news, trending cases, and emerging stories to identify valuable footage, records, and other primary-source content.
• Develop daily acquisition priorities based on editorial strategy, audience interest, and anticipated content demand.
• Translate leadership priorities into actionable requests and recommend the cases, agencies, and asset types that warrant investment.
• Move quickly from news identification to filing, pursuing high-priority assets before competitors.

FOIA & Public Records Operations

• Oversee FOIA, state open-records, and court-records requests from submission through asset delivery.
• Guide follow-ups, appeals, escalations, and responses to denials, delays, and fee disputes.
• Expand acquisition coverage by building relationships with public agencies, courts, and records custodians across states and jurisdictions.
• Ensure requests and related processes comply with applicable public records laws and company standards.

Team Leadership & Performance Management

• Manage and develop a team of four records specialists, setting priorities, assigning cases, and providing ongoing direction and feedback.
• Balance team workloads, request fees, deadlines, and urgent breaking-news needs.
• Maintain a disciplined follow-up process so every priority case has an owner, request plan, and escalation cadence.
• Monitor team output and identify opportunities to improve timeliness, quality, and fulfillment.

Audience Insights & Cross-Functional Collaboration

• Partner with YouTube, social, linear, and production teams to understand which cases and asset formats drive audience engagement.
• Use audience insights and industry coverage trends to refine acquisition priorities and anticipate demand.
• Coordinate across Law&Crime and Court TV content teams to communicate what assets are being pursued, expected delivery dates, and newly available content.
• Monitor competitor coverage and records-release timelines to identify opportunities to improve speed and market position.

Tracking, Reporting & Process Improvement

• Maintain an accurate pipeline of requests, follow-ups, fulfillment status, and delivered assets.
• Report regularly on filing speed, time to asset, fulfillment, acquisition volume, market reach, and content impact.
• Evaluate workflows, tools, and agency response patterns to increase efficiency and improve results.

Qualifications

• 3+ years of experience filing FOIA and state public records requests, ideally in a newsroom, investigative reporting, or media environment.
• Working knowledge of court systems and processes for obtaining filings, exhibits, and evidence.
• Experience managing and motivating a team in a deadline-driven, high-volume environment.
• Strong news judgment and ability to prioritize stories and records based on editorial relevance and audience interest.
• Excellent organizational skills, with the ability to manage multiple active requests, deadlines, and escalations.
• Strong written and verbal communication, relationship management, and negotiation skills.
• Comfort working with request portals, court records databases, project management systems, and newsroom workflows.

Preferred Qualifications

• Experience acquiring body-camera footage, interrogation recordings, 911 calls, or other law-enforcement and court records for publication.
• Familiarity with YouTube and social media audience analytics and content performance trends.
• Experience with records-request platforms such as GovQA or NextRequest.
• Established relationships with public records custodians, courts, or law enforcement agencies.
• Background in legal news, true crime, investigative reporting, or digital video publishing.

What Success Looks Like

• Law&Crime and Court TV are first to publish newly released records on a growing share of priority cases.
• Reduced time from breaking news to the first records request and from request submission to asset receipt.
• Higher fulfillment rates and increased volume of usable assets delivered to content teams.
• Broader coverage across agencies, courts, and states.
• Consistent tracking and follow-through on every major case, including appeals and escalations.
• Greater use of acquired assets in published content, with measurable audience and revenue impact.

Why Join Law&Crime

This is an opportunity to build and lead a critical content acquisition function at the intersection of breaking news, investigative reporting, and digital media. Your work will help bring original footage and records to millions of viewers while shaping how Law&Crime and Court TV identify and pursue the stories that matter most.

You will collaborate with editorial and business leaders, develop a specialized team, and help set new standards for speed, reach, and impact in primary-source content acquisition.

Note to Applicants

Success in this role requires urgency, persistence, strong judgment, and a willingness to navigate complex public records processes. The ideal candidate enjoys finding a path forward when records are difficult to obtain and knows how to turn timely acquisitions into meaningful coverage.