Audience Director

Who We Are

The Marshall Project is a nonprofit news organization dedicated to covering America’s criminal justice system. The Marshall Project was awarded the Pulitzer Prize in 2016 and 2021. We have also been honored with the Goldsmith Prize, multiple National Magazine Awards, and for General Excellence from the Online Journalism Awards. We are not advocates — we follow the facts and do not pander to any audience — but we have a declared mission: to create and sustain a sense of urgency about the criminal justice system. We do not generally cover breaking news, although we curate the reporting of other news outlets in our morning newsletter. Our work includes investigative and explanatory projects and shorter pieces aimed at highlighting stories that other news organizations miss, underestimate or misunderstand. To ensure our work reaches a larger audience, we partner with other media outlets; we have worked with more than 200 newspapers, magazines, broadcasters and online sites.

Essential Duties and Responsibilities

The Audience Director at The Marshall Project is a key leader who will work across the organization to help us devise new strategies to expand our reach, deepen engagement and meet both editorial and business goals. They will help us understand and grow diverse audiences — from people new to criminal justice issues, to experts who need accurate, timely information, to those directly affected by the system and too often overlooked by the media. Each of these groups has growth potential, with the greatest opportunity in attracting new readers, sustaining their interest and inspiring their financial support. 

• Serve as the organization’s lead newsroom audience strategist, developing and executing a multi-platform plan — spanning our website, newsletters, video, social media, search, podcasts and emerging platforms — that includes original, creative social-first storytelling, with an emphasis on video content.
• Partner with senior leaders, including our Strategic Analytics Manager, to ensure audience insights inform editorial planning, product development and partnerships.
• Shape, manage and mentor a small but growing audience team, setting clear goals, priorities and metrics for success while fostering a culture of experimentation, collaboration and inclusion.This includes direct supervision of newsletter editors and our audience engagement strategist.
• Drive SEO and discoverability strategies to ensure our work reaches readers who most need it, including communities directly impacted by the criminal justice system.
• Engage with the transformational impact that AI is having on the distribution of news and search, and interest in experimenting and developing new strategies around this tool. 
• Help train and coach editors, reporters and other staff on ways to grow reach and engagement on their work and, more importantly, on how to prioritize impactful journalism that drives loyalty.
• Help our organization perfect and devise industry practices that are best for The Marshall Project. This work includes teaching and writing inviting headlines and display copy writing.
• With our newsletter strategist and newsletter editor, oversee newsletter strategy — from content and cadence to testing and growth tactics — with the goal of building loyal, long-term reader relationships.
• Work with colleagues in our local news teams to develop and manage strategies for local audience outreach and development. 
• Coordinate with our partnerships staff to maximize reach and engagement for stories we co-publish with other outlets, including local and community media
• Partner with business-side and development teams to shape paid promotion and membership campaigns, ensuring they align with our editorial voice, uphold accuracy standards and support both audience growth and revenue goals
• Help oversee outreach to third-party platforms such as Apple News, Flipboard and more, and build relationships with key players there
• Collaborate with product and editorial teams to create strategies that increase reader engagement and encourage exploration of more of our journalism. 
• Prepare materials about our audience for our staff, Board of Directors, and major donors 
• Stay on top of industry trends, platform shifts and emerging tools to keep The Marshall Project at the forefront of audience innovation in nonprofit and mission-driven journalism.
• Create innovative audience strategies to connect our work to non-traditional audiences, which might include justice-affected communities, incarcerated people, and low-literacy communities.

Job Requirements

Our Audience Director should have a substantial background in audience growth. They should have real experience developing audiences on various platforms, with a keen sense of innovation in the field. The ideal candidate should have the following:

• 5–7 years of experience in audience strategy within a newsroom or non-profit setting, plus supervisory experience
• Significant experience leading audience strategy, with the ability to balance long-term planning with the flexibility to adapt to emerging opportunities and challenges
• Strong leadership and management skills, including experience setting goals, mentoring staff and collaborating across departments
• Demonstrated success translating audience data and analytics into actionable editorial, product and membership strategies
• Expertise in multi-platform distribution, including web, newsletters, search/SEO, social media and emerging platforms
• Comfort with analytics tools such as Google Analytics, Parse.ly, or similar, to inform content and platform strategy, and the ability to communicate insights clearly to colleagues
• An understanding of — or deep interest in learning about — the criminal justice system and the communities most affected by it
• A collaborative, solutions-oriented approach to problem-solving, with the ability to thrive in a small, mission-driven team

Who You’d Be Working With

You’ll collaborate with virtually every team at TMP. But you’ll work closely with the Editor-in-Chief, Chief Strategy Officer, Strategic Analytics Manager, Editorial Director, Director of Product, Director of Technology, Managing Editor, Local, Engagement Editor, other editors and reporters, our development team, our partnerships team, as well as our dynamic audience team. You will also work with external partners to extend the reach and impact of our work.

Compensation and Benefits 

This job is full-time, with a competitive salary and benefits including:

100% employer-paid medical, employer-subsidized vision and dental insurance; matching traditional and Roth 401k (immediate vesting). Voluntary benefits include: Health and Dependent Care FSA, commuter benefits, pet insurance, short and long term disability insurance, employee and dependent life insurance, AFLAC accident, hospital indemnity, and critical illness coverage, legal benefits, personal excess liability insurance, and employee discount marketplace. We also observe 17 days of paid time off each year (in addition to office closure between Dec. 24 and Jan. 2), and provide paid parental leave.

Annual Salary Range: $135,000 - $150,000 

We are headquartered in New York City, but this job can be filled remotely. 

A cover letter is required. Please submit a cover letter that gives examples of how you have led audience strategy and growth, facilitated team-building in your work, and examples of your storytelling on emerging platforms. Feel free to use bullet points for brevity.

We are an equal opportunity employer, committed to diversity. We welcome qualified applicants of all races, ages, ethnicities, physical abilities, genders and sexual orientations, including people who have been incarcerated or otherwise involved with the criminal justice system.

We do not expect every candidate to be equally skilled in all these areas, and this is not a complete list of all relevant qualifications applicants might bring to the job. Please tell us about your other assets not mentioned here that may be valuable to this role. Reaching talent across a range of backgrounds and experiences is deeply important to us. If you do not have the exact combination of skills listed here, but are still interested in this role and/or in The Marshall Project, we'd love to hear from you.