Audience and Collaboration Strategist

The Texas Tribune is hiring an Audience and Collaboration Strategist to expand and deepen connections with audiences and other news organizations across Texas and maximize the impact of our most ambitious accountability and investigative journalism.

The position is part of a collaboration between the Tribune and ProPublica, which partnered five years ago to form a joint investigative unit focused on this diverse and critical state. The Texas Tribune-ProPublica Investigative Unit uncovers big stories that matter to Texans and the nation, taking aim at corruption, injustice and malfeasance across Texas.

In the coming year, the Tribune and ProPublica will launch a new initiative to collaborate with five newsrooms across Texas on accountability and investigative projects. These partnerships will provide local newsrooms with stipends, training, access to a dedicated editor, and other resources to support reporting on a single, impactful topic.

The Audience and Collaboration Strategist will ensure that the work of the joint investigative unit and Tribune enterprise team finds a broad and meaningful audience. This includes developing distribution strategies for social media and thinking creatively about new and unconventional promotion strategies that ensure the people and communities that need to know about our journalism are exposed to it. For example, making printable items for connecting with readers in person or collaborating with an audience team for a series of videos to run across multiple platforms.

The minimum salary is $60,000, but the pay for this position will depend on experience. Candidates with extensive experience are encouraged to apply. This is a grant-funded position, for which five years of funding is secured.

This Audience and Collaboration Strategist would work with our joint investigative unit and play a vital part in ensuring the success of these partnerships.

Responsibilities:

• Collaborating with audience teams: Participate in meetings with the Texas Tribune/ProPublica team and local partners and work with them and their audience teams to develop strategies for promoting and disseminating their work and engaging key audiences to help drive impact. The strategist in this role would also help identify partner news outlets to share the investigative work produced by the unit.
• Amplifying coverage: Assist in crafting pitches to state and national media outlets to broaden the impact of the reporting.
• Targeting key audiences: Identify and engage specific audiences, such as advocacy groups, policymakers, health care professionals, and community leaders, to ensure the journalism reaches those best positioned to act on it.
• Developing outreach strategies: Develop and execute innovative distribution strategies across social media, newsletters, and other platforms to amplify the work of the investigative unit and drive meaningful engagement and impact among readers. As traditional social platforms have become less effective, we aim to explore new channels to better connect with Texans and share our work. That could include helping plan events with our events team to engage with readers or communities particularly affected by a specific line of reporting. Or it could mean tailoring content for emerging platforms like BlueSky, Reddit, TikTok, and YouTube Shorts.
• Analytics and Insights: Share insights from Parse.ly and other analytics platforms internally and with partner newsrooms to inform data-driven strategies for effectively distributing the investigative work produced.
• Experimentation: Innovate with emerging tools, platforms, and formats to expand and deepen audience connections.
• Training: Support Tribune newsroom staff with best practices and training in audience engagement and content optimization.

Qualifications

• Demonstrated experience in audience development, social media management, or digital strategy within a newsroom or media organization, with a creative and innovative approach to reaching and engaging new audiences
• Proven experience collaborating with multiple newsrooms to achieve shared goals
• Expertise in developing innovative strategies that extend beyond traditional social media platforms, exploring new and creative ways to connect journalism with new readers
• Strong understanding of analytics tools such as Google Analytics, Parsley, or similar applications
• Exceptional writing and communication skills, with a knack for tailoring messages to specific platforms
• Proficiency with social media platforms, content management systems, and email marketing tools
• A passion for accountability and investigative journalism
• An understanding of Texas politics, culture, and issues is a strong plus.
• Being bilingual in English and Spanish is a bonus.

Location

The Tribune is based in downtown Austin, steps away from the Texas Capitol, but we will consider candidates interested in living and working elsewhere in the state.

Benefits

This is a full-time, exempt position and includes the following benefits:

• Medical, vision and dental insurance
• A cellphone stipend
• 20 days of paid time off each year
• Up to 16 weeks of paid family leave, plus four weeks of additional job protection
• 401(k) matching
• Remote working flexibility

How to Apply

Submit your application here by January 22, 2025. Along with a résumé and cover letter, please submit a memo detailing your vision for this position and how you would approach the work.

The Texas Tribune is an Equal Opportunity Employer. We are committed to diversity and building an inclusive environment for all, and we encourage applicants of all identities, backgrounds, ages, and abilities to apply. We can't wait to hear from you.

About The Texas Tribune

Here’s what you should know about the Tribune. From day one we’ve had disruption, innovation and risk-taking in our DNA. We’re ambitious as all get out but still have the punch-above-your-weight mentality of a scrappy start-up. Fifteen years ago, the Tribune reinvented the business model for public service journalism. We are always looking to expand our boundaries.

We’re nonprofit because the challenging economic reality for the media these days obligates us to find a different way, reliable and sustainable, to fund serious journalism. We’re nonpartisan because we live in the United States of Confirmation Bias — and we don’t need to be part of the problem. At the same time, nonpartisan is not non-thinking. We call B.S. when B.S. needs to be called.

All of us at the Trib believe the best way to achieve that mission is to resemble the state we cover. We’re committed to building an inclusive newsroom for people of all backgrounds and ages, and we’re taking steps to meet that commitment. We especially encourage members of traditionally underrepresented communities to apply for this role, including women, veterans, people of color, LGBTQ+ people and people with disabilities.

Learn more about the Tribune here .