Vice President, Audience and Content Strategy

Job Description

The Hill, a division of Nexstar Media Group, seeks a Vice President of Content Strategy to be a key part of our news leadership team as we work to bring our trusted, nonpartisan coverage of politics and policy to more Americans.

The right candidate for the job knows that charting a successful growth strategy involves journalistic ethics, deep understanding of audience, teamwork, hands-on skills, and, above all, vision.

This person can articulate a content strategy that can simultaneously grow reach and increase engagement. They should be adept at understanding social tactics and the latest search trends to drive new readership, and they should be able to motivate readers to move deeper into a loyalty funnel. The right candidate can dig deep into analytics to make informed decisions and can balance data with gut instinct and sound journalism skills. And, above all, this person needs to be able to teach and train journalists on how they play a part in growing readership.

This position serves on the newsroom's senior leadership team, but it also oversees a multi-platform audience operation, encompassing social producers, newsletter writers and digital optimizers. In this capacity, they'll grow the skills of their team while helping to make key decisions about The Hill's future.

We're looking for someone who can be part of a collegial team - a partner who can both envision high level strategic ideas and has the hands-on skill to make it a reality.

Candidates should live in the Washington, DC area and be able to come into the office at least twice a week, but you're not required to be in the newsroom every day.

This position will be responsible for:
• Growing audience for The Hill: Work across the newsroom to increase overall site traffic past 50 million unique visitors while staying true to The Hill's mission as a decoder of politics, policy and related issues for the nation.
• Analyzing audience and working with staff to understand trends: Study internal trends in readership using metadata, sophisticated data analysis and forecasting. Use regular meetings with staff to convey trends for both editors and reporters with the goal of lifting overall median readership.
• Identifying new opportunities: Using internal and external data, help spot opportunities for new coverage areas and methods. Work with editors and teams to implement these opportunities.
• Increasing the sophistication of our digital storytelling: Work with other editors in the newsroom to improve planning and enhance storytelling through better use of visuals and infographics.
• Create and implement a full-funnel audience strategy: Help lead the newsroom from audience growth to improved engagement and retention using inflection points at each stage of an audience funnel. Lead pilots for direct reader support and revenue opportunities as well as growth in first party data.

Skills and experience:
• At least 10 years of experience in a digital news operation.
• At least 5 years of leadership running digital teams, content strategy or similar in a digital news/media operation.
• Solid understanding of SEO tactics, newsletter engagement strategy and social media engagement.
• Understanding of digital media strategy and how to foster audience growth and deeper engagement from existing readers.
• Ability to analyze audience data for patterns and work throughout the newsroom to ethically apply that data in pursuit of stronger journalism.
• Excellent critical thinking skills and the ability to operate on deadline in a competitive news environment.

Technical skills:
• Understanding of Google Analytics, Adobe Analytics, Chartbeat or similar tools.
• Familiarity with Looker, Tableau or other data warehouse front ends.
• Understanding of online visualization tools like Canva, Infogram or Flourish to create compelling visualizations.
• Basic understanding of Adobe Creative Suite (Photoshop and other components).
• Strong fluency in Microsoft Excel and other Office components.
• Working knowledge of HTML and CSS.

Please upload your materials with as much of the following as possible: Your updated resume, a brief cover letter explaining your interest and fit for this position, and any relevant case studies or examples of audience growth. Completing these steps will ensure that you receive the highest consideration.

About the Hill  

Established in 1994, The Hill is the country's definitive digital source for non-partisan political news and information. Inside the Beltway, it's known as an essential, agenda-setting read for lawmakers and influencers. Beyond the Capitol, The Hill's trusted content is shared more often on social media than any other political news brand in America. 

Our properties include TheHill.com, reaching a monthly audience of 41M; The Hill TV, the largest independent video platform within the Beltway with 1.4B annual views; The Hill's print edition, one of the most influential sources for law and policy makers; Elevate Studios, creating breakthrough branded content offerings for leading marketers; and The Hill Events, which hosted 70 virtual events last year, featuring 92 Members of Congress and 88 industry leaders in meaningful policy discussions.

Jobcode: Reference SBJ-r03xpm-18-220-248-77-42 in your application.