Audience Producer, Chron

Audience Engagement Producer

Chron is seeking an audience engagement producer with strong editorial judgment, the ability to write a quick-turn trending story, and a keen understanding of content management systems. The ideal candidate will be able to optimize the Chron home page to highlight our best stories and encourage audience engagement with embeds, data visualization, imagery and video, and recirculation.

This person will collaborate with reporters, editors and the audience team to develop promotion plans for marquee content series. They will have strong news judgment since a large part of their role will be keeping an eye on the wire and finding stories that best serve the Houston and Texas audiences. This person will also be responsible for understanding every element of Hearst's content management system, including working closely with the product team on enhancements and tools, and helping to train new employees during their onboarding.

Primary responsibilities:

• Manage the Chron site as needed, including writing trending stories as needed and pulling stories from the wires or other sources
• Optimize stories with embeds, recirculation cards or other storytelling devices to keep audiences engaged
• Prepare and send newsletters, notifications and alerts
• Help the audience engagement editor develop and execute site promotion plans
• Share trending search terms and traffic performance during the day with the editorial team to inform their planning
• Learn how to use tools like Datawrapper to visually enhance key stories with maps or charts as needed

Requirements:

• 1-2 years of relevant experience working in digital publishing or related audience development role
• Excellent news judgment
• Familiarity with content management systems, technical publishing tools like Sailthru and Datawrapper, and analytics like Google GA
• Solid writing and communication skills, including knowledge of AP Style

Preferred skills:

• Experience using audience and analytics tools like Chartbeat, Google Analytics, Looker
• Comfort with data visualization tools like Datawrapper
• Experience working with content management systems and publishing to digital platforms

The most challenging aspect of this position:

• Time management
• Understanding audience habits and suggesting promotion tactics that serve site visitors, search audiences, newsletter readers

What type of decisions does this person have the authority to make without a supervisor's approval?

• Moving stories on the homepage
• Writing social copy and posting stories to platforms after an initial training and review period

For what types of decisions does this person defer to others for approval?

• Long-term social, search and audience strategy
• Pulling wire stories that may conflict with Chron's original coverage

What are the measures of success for this position?

• Increasing followers and engagement (shares, comments) across various social platforms
• Driving traffic from social, search and newsletters back to Chron content on site
• Overall increase of unique in-DMA audiences
• Overall increase of repeat visitors from target growth markets within Texas

Chron is an essential digital-first local news source serving more than 6 million unique readers a month in Houston and the surrounding region, including Galveston and the Gulf Coast. Once the digital home for the Houston Chronicle, Chron became its own distinctive site and newsroom in 2012, when HoustonChronicle.com launched. Focusing on stories that capture local culture and spark conversation, Chron covers trending sports, food and entertainment, travel, local TV personalities, real estate, space and more. Chron.com has become the go-to destination for metro and regional readers who are curious about what's new in Houston and what's affecting culture and life in the Bayou City.

With 2,500 employees across the nation, HNP encompasses a network of 24 daily and 52 weekly publications, including the San Francisco Chronicle, Houston Chronicle, San Antonio Express-News and Albany Times Union, several top digital-only news and lifestyle sites, marketing services businesses, and entertainment businesses such as King Features Syndicate.

At HNP, we are investing in new and innovative ways to tell stories – growing newsrooms, diversifying tools, evolving platforms – to support the millions of people who trust us each month to help them make decisions, take action and be inspired.

Recognizing the diverse needs of our candidates, if you are interested in applying for employment and need assistance or an accommodation to use our website or regarding the application process, please contact us by email at hnpemployment@hearst.com. Please do not use this email address to inquire about the status of applications. We will only respond to inquiries concerning requests for a reasonable accommodation through this email address.

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