Job Description
ProPublica is an independent, nonprofit newsroom that produces investigative journalism in the public interest.
We are seeking a versatile audience editor to join ProPublica’s impact-driven audience team.
At ProPublica, audience editors sit at the intersection of editorial and distribution, playing a central role in how our journalism reaches and resonates with audiences across platforms. Working closely with senior editors and reporters, audience editors shape the written and visual presentation of stories on- and off-platform — from headlines and social copy to push notifications and Instagram posts — while also shaping and informing broader story promotional strategies.
This is a full-time, two-year role that will report directly to the deputy audience editor.
Essential Responsibilities:
- Write and edit concise and compelling headlines, deks, social copy, push notification alerts and other related copy for assigned stories with speed and accuracy.
- Contribute to distribution and promotion plans for your assigned stories, using real-time analytics to power your decisions.
- Serve as the point person for your assigned stories, helping to inform the audience team of reporting findings and on-site and off-platform performance metrics.
- Lead the early morning social shift, programming reposts, monitoring comments and replies, and posting breaking news stories, as needed, across numerous social platforms. Serve as a backup for other social shifts when team members are out sick, on vacation or seek additional capacity.
- Send push notifications to our audiences on desktop, native iOS and Android apps, and Apple News.
- Lead a daily homepage shift, managing and monitoring story placements and performance.
About You:
We are looking for someone who has audience engagement, editing and social media production experience. The ideal candidate will have many of these skills:
- Strong headline writing and copy editing skills as well as a familiarity with AP style.
- Deep understanding of platform-specific content best practices.
- Strong news judgment and a deep understanding of how stories can resonate with our audiences.
- Experience creating social content and programming for social platforms. Currently, ProPublica is active across numerous platforms, including Bluesky, X/Twitter, Facebook, Threads, LinkedIn, Mastodon, Reddit, Instagram, TikTok and YouTube.
- Experience with social media scheduling and analytics tools such as Sprout Social, Buffer and Later.
- Familiarity with content analytics tools like Google Analytics, Parse.ly and Chartbeat.
- A history of leveraging social media platforms to maximize the impact and reach of a news story, all with a goal of making the journalism as accessible as it can be for as many people as possible.
- A collaborative mindset, stellar communication skills and the ability to work on several stories at once. You’ll need to stay organized and focused and meet deadlines.
- Experience working on enterprise and investigative journalism is a plus.
- Available to work, with advance notice, occasional nights or weekends as the news cycle demands.
- Ability to travel as required.
This job is a full-time, two-year temporary position and includes benefits. ProPublica is based in New York, but we’re open to remote candidates who can begin work during the early morning hours East Coast time. We have offices in New York City; Washington, D.C.; Atlanta; Chicago; Phoenix; and Berkeley, California. Applicants must be eligible to work in the U.S.
The expected salary range for this position is $95,000 to $100,000.
This is a good-faith estimate of what we expect to pay for this position. The final salary figure will take into account a person’s experience, accomplishment and location. ProPublica is committed to paying its staff equitably, and these ranges should not be considered career salary limits or caps.
We will begin reviewing applications as we receive them, but we will continue to consider candidates as long as the posting remains live on our site.
Questions? Send an email to [email protected].
No phone calls, please.
We know there are great candidates who may not fit into what we’ve described above or who have important skills we haven’t thought of. If that’s you, don’t hesitate to apply and tell us about yourself.
We are dedicated to improving our newsroom, in part by better reflecting the people we cover. (Here is a breakdown of our staff.) We are committed to diversity and building an inclusive environment for people of all backgrounds and ages. And we are taking steps to meet that commitment. We especially encourage members of traditionally underrepresented communities to apply, including women, people of color, LGBTQ+ people and people with disabilities. We are an equal opportunity employer and prohibit discrimination and harassment of any kind. All employment decisions are made without regard to race, color, religion, sex, sexual orientation, national origin, age or any other status protected under applicable law.
