The Independent, Audience Editor

Audience Editor
Salary - £30,000 - £35,000

About us

The Independent is an online news publisher that was established in 1986 as a national newspaper independent of party political affiliations or proprietorial influence. In 2016, The Independent became a fully digital publisher, moving away from print in pursuit of sustainability, and to safeguard its values and journalism for the future.

The Independent has always thrived through innovation and change. It was the first British newspaper to add a Saturday magazine; the first to give photography the same prestige as a news copy; the first to challenge the Westminster lobby system of closed briefings; the first broadsheet to move to the more compact ‘tabloid’ format; the first to launch a concise quality compact paper; and the first – and only – major newspaper to pull off a successful transformation to fully digital publishing.

Through The Independent, Independent TV, eCommerce, indy100, subscriptions and other ‘reader revenues’, The Independent plans to continue the work of many decades, bringing much-needed independent journalism to over 100 million unique global visitors a month, make its voice ever louder and more insistent the world over.
We have an international editorial team with our main offices in London and New York.

Diversity, Equity and Inclusion

We champion diversity in our teams and in our reporting. As a growing and global brand, we must have a workforce that’s more representative of our readers, viewers, clients and partners, and a workplace that creates a sense of belonging for everyone.

We are committed to hiring and developing a diverse workforce regardless of background, and we support our people to thrive in their careers here.
The Independent is an equal opportunities employer, if you require any reasonable adjustments to complete your application, please do not hesitate to advise us accordingly.

About you

The Independent is looking for a dynamic and experienced audience editor to grow its global reach and help lead changes in editorial strategy and workflow.

Reporting directly to the Head of Audience (Editorial), the right candidate will be a highly-organised self-starter, with a deep understanding of how to achieve audience growth across all platforms, as well as being a skilled journalist and wordsmith.

We are looking for someone who has a genuine passion for content and how best to achieve audiences on a large scale. You might be a trained journalist with experience in an equivalent organisation, keen to specialise as an audience editor.

You’ll be working in a fast-paced environment where accuracy and creativity are key so the ability to think under pressure is vital.

We are looking for candidates from a journalistic background with significant newsroom experience and a thorough understanding of social media and SEO.

This role will be hybrid remote, spending 2-3 days per week in our offices in Moorgate.

Key responsibilities and accountabilities

• Monitor news and wires constantly for traffic opportunities
• Recraft headlines to make content pop on and off platform
• Help inform journalistic decisions with audience best practice in mind
• Help to implement social media strategy across all platforms
• Post to social media - Facebook, Twitter and Instagram primarily
• Use analytics platforms to report on performance and spot opportunities
• Suggest stories and subjects for different areas of the site, from news to culture, lifestyle to sport
• Drive the growth of Independent across social media
• Develop SEO skills under the guidance of other team members

Skills

• Strong familiarity with The Independent and our coverage
• Proven track record for increasing followers, engagement and traffic on social media or growth through SEO
• Excellent organisational and planning skills required to manage the daily/weekly/monthly publishing flow of an editorial team.
• Ability to collaborate with editors to grow and increase audience, both on site and across platforms.
• Ability to analyse complex issues and developing actionable insights and plans – using data from proprietary platform analytics (e.g. Facebook) and or third-party aggregate sources (e.g., CrowdTangle).
• Experience using reporting and analytics tools (Omniture, Chartbeat) or willingness to learn,
• Skilled content creator.
• Expert knowledge of trends and tools for social media platforms.
• Experience of working in a dynamic fast-paced media environment.

Our values – you will deliver across all our values
Inclusive: We champion diversity in our teams and in our reporting. Working as a team, we put transparency and effective communication at the heart of everything we do.

Innovative: From the very beginning, The Independent has been breaking the mould. We take risks and are always looking to try new ideas in pursuit of excellence.

Independent: Nobody tells us what to think; we make up our own minds and aren’t afraid to do things differently. Like our readers, we value honesty and integrity above outside influences.