Audience Engagement Senior Editor

Start date: As soon as possible

Location: Flexible, with availability largely within standard CET business hours Mon-Fri

Compensation: Competitive, based on experience

Deadline for application: 2 September 2019

* Experience as a journalist in the news sector is required.

The New Humanitarian (formerly IRIN News) puts independent journalism at the service of the millions of people affected by humanitarian crises around the world. Our on-the-ground reporting informs humanitarian need and response, amplifies the voices of those at the center of crises, and acts as a watchdog to hold the sector accountable to itself, its funders, and the communities it serves.

We were founded as IRIN by the United Nations in 1995, in the wake of the Rwandan genocide, out of the conviction that objective on-the-ground reporting of humanitarian crises could help mitigate or even prevent future disasters of that magnitude. In 2015, we spun off from the UN to become a fully independent nonprofit newsroom, IRIN News, headquartered in Switzerland.

In March, we re-launched as The New Humanitarian, part of our goal to bring our unique reporting to wider audiences at a time when humanitarian crises have never been so global in their repercussions. Now we’re looking for an experienced journalist with the audience growth and engagement know-how to ensure that our reporting is read as widely as possible by impactful, influential audiences within the humanitarian sector and beyond.

Reporting to the executive editor, you will be an ambassador for the audience as a senior member of our editorial team. You don’t need to be a data nerd – though data skills certainly help. Rather, we want an excellent editor who is evangelical about connecting our great journalism to relevant audiences and has an entrepreneurial and experimental mindset. As with any position in our small team, you must thrive in a start-up culture and be keen to stretch yourself across diverse tasks, being both strategic and operational. This is a senior role that demands strategic thinking, initiative, and leadership; it is also a hands-on role, where you will execute many of the daily tasks needed to monitor and engage with our audience.

Roles and Responsibilities

You will develop and drive forward a growth and engagement strategy that expands our audience within the humanitarian sector and beyond — including a globally engaged wider audience — and maximizes the impact of our work via wider distribution on social media and targeted re-publication.

You'll work closely with the executive editor, management team, and editorial team to develop, execute, and manage the following:

Consistently analyse user behaviour/UX and content performance on-and-off platform, and develop strategy accordingly
Oversee our newsletter strategy, including managing and publishing our existing daily and weekly newsletters and launching new publications
Throughout the life-cycle of key reporting packages, understand editorial priorities and identify and help execute impactful presentation and distribution strategies
Increase the editorial team’s metric literacy and facility in SEO and off-platform content creation via updates, workshops, and other learning opportunities
Oversee and post to all social platforms daily, while serving as a social media “evangelist” to coach our editorial team and contributors in crafting effective social media content
Suggest and oversee cross-platform repackaging of core site content, visual as well as text; identify new platforms and adapt content to diverse, multicultural audiences
Effectively track our content reach and engagement across all channels, including our website, newsletters, syndication and re-publication partners, and social media
Explore and experiment with new tools, formats, and products for growth and engagement, including direct feedback from readers, off-platform communities, etc.
Support the organisation of webinars and events to engage readers in our content
Work with the executive editor to identify and develop distribution partnerships with other media organisations
Develop targeted content promotions
Map specific target audiences of relevance to our mission to inform crisis prevention and response

Qualifications

At least 7 years as a journalist in the news sector, with an interest in audience engagement
Demonstrable expertise working with editorial teams to present and promote coverage across platforms and toward diverse audiences
In-depth familiarity with international and non-profit media landscape, including a solid understanding of best practices and emerging trends for distributing timely coverage and engaging niche and general audiences
Strong analytical literacy in mainstream and emerging analytics tools with a proven track-record of data-driven decision-making
Collaborative, news-cycle informed mindset
Strong interest in finding and experimenting with “the next big thing” in audience growth and engagement and initiative to “fail forward” and correct course as needed
Excellent written English and knowledge of professional journalism practices and ethics
Understanding of what makes social content travel and ability to write and edit compelling posts, tweets, and other copy that reflect the TNH brand

Desirables

Passion for our beat: the impact of conflict, displacement, disasters, and health emergencies on ordinary people
Experience in a dedicated audience engagement and growth role, preferably with a focus on international audiences
Familiarity with the international humanitarian aid sector, currently our core audience
Familiarity with global media distribution and engagement channels, especially in Africa and the Mideast
Fluency in a language other than English, especially French or Arabic
Sizeable social following or at least an established presence on several platforms
Experience creating audio, visual, and other multimedia content for social
Experience working in a global newsroom, with an international team

Competencies

This is a senior role, so the right candidate will be confident in taking ownership of audience engagement, working closely with the management team. We're looking for someone who knows how to take an idea forward quickly, test, launch, and learn from mistakes. The following competencies are a must:

The ability to quickly make sense of data and draw hypotheses to inform strategy
An iterative, experimental mindset and appetite for self-learning
Strong presentation skills with a flair for presenting data in simple, compelling ways
Ability to build collaboration and cooperation across a diverse, decentralized, multicultural team
Ability to deliver under pressure; work to the demands of tight deadlines; and prioritize among competing demands
Demonstrated commitment to professional journalistic standards and practices
Commitment to The New Humanitarian’s mission of using independent journalism to inform the response to and prevention of humanitarian crises while amplifying the voices of people at the heart of those crises
Excellent news judgment and understanding of the evolution of news media

To Apply

Please submit:

Your CV;
a letter detailing how your experience will benefit TNH and why you’d like to join us;
examples of audience growth or engagement campaigns or initiatives you developed or participated in (along with an explanation of your role); and
three brief ideas for steps we could take to begin to grow and engage our audience.

Please submit this material to [email protected] with the subject line: Audience Engagement Editor

More on TNH

Some 170,000 people (mostly government, UN and NGO officials, journalists, and academics) visit our website every month, 40,000 subscribe to our email newsletters, and many more access our journalism through social media and re-publication by mainstream media. Our journalism has prompted public petitions, donations and charity telethons, new aid programmes, debates in parliaments, and changes in UN policy.

Our reporting tackles many of the key issues of our time, from migration to climate change, from the war in Syria to a multi-billion-dollar aid industry in turmoil. In a recent audience survey, readers described TNH as unique in reporting on issues that many news agencies overlook; conducting exclusive investigations into the aid sector; reporting from undercovered locations; and offering expert analysis and opinions unavailable elsewhere.

Our work is regularly cited and reproduced in academic journals and local and international media outlets, including the BBC and The New York Times.

We are funded by a mix of governments and foundations.