Job Description

Hours: Typically Monday-Friday with occasional evenings or weekends for special events and/or breaking news
Description: The Southern California News Group is looking for an Audience Engagement Editor to help our journalism thrive on all SCNG digital platforms by leading our initiatives on social channels, newsletters and push alerts.

We’re pretty proud of our journalism -- from investigations that win Pulitzer Prizes to breaking news that outpaces our competitors. We have a team of clever digital producers who pull it all together into top-quality presentation for SCNG’s 11 sites, including the Orange County Register and Los Angeles Daily News. The Audience Engagement Team helps our journalism reach its widest audience by curating our branded social media accounts, sending browser alerts and helping craft our email newsletters.

In this job, you’ll apply a deep understanding of audience and user behavior to guide coverage plans with our editors that will deliver the news our off-platform readers need. Breaking news is a top priority, as well as being able to manage push and email alerts as needed. You’ll use analytics to spot opportunities and think strategically about how to make the most of them.

This editor will lead a team who manages our branded social accounts. The editor will work on projects in all content sections, including news, sports, entertainment and opinion, helping section editors to become more proficient with planning for social media and engagement projects, and often taking the lead on writing digital plans for SCNG-wide projects. Think everything from the Rose Bowl to Coachella to wildfire season.

The editor will be responsible for designing workflow, best practices and standards, analyzing metrics and staying abreast of industry trends and new technologies. The editor reports to the managing editor for digital.

The editor will:
Lead daily production of branded social media channels, push alerts and newsletter curation
Actively train other staffers on best practices and innovative digital tools
Maintain social media, newsletter and alerts publishing calendar
Collaborate with editors across SCNG to identify high-impact enterprise projects, as well as participating in breaking news and deadline-driven coverage
Work with corporate-level counterparts on projects
Monitor analytics reports and make strategic adjustments as needed to grow readership for our coverage

Who you’ll work with:
We have a team of about 200 journalists working from 11 newsrooms across Southern California. A few have won Pulitzer Prizes. Some are just starting out. A few grew up in the communities they cover. Some are still learning that the West Coast is the Best Coast. What we have in common is a belief that local journalism is important and we’re all doing our part to tell stories that matter to our communities.

What we like about working here, as told by people who work here:
If I have an idea, I can make a case for it and lead its creation.
Opportunity to be heard by higher ups.
Direct impact on communities.
Ownership over what our future looks like.
The people I work with.
Opportunity to learn and grow.
Get to do things and be involved in things I may not get the opportunity to do other places.
We get to invent things every day.
I know what’s happening all the time in the world and around me.
We debate and learn from each other.


Required skills
Strong news judgment
Experience leading coverage of live events
Expertise in newsletters and push alert strategies for newsrooms
Strong understanding of social media and knowledge of how to use it to manage core accounts on Twitter and Facebook as well as listening to and curating social conversations.
Knowledge of analytics and how to use them in digital decision making or spotting opportunities. We use Google Analytics and Parse.ly as well as some custom tools
Expertise in publishing tools such as Facebook Business Manager, CrowdTangle, SocialFlow, EchoBox, Push.ly, etc. and how to use them to efficiently manage branded accounts
Understanding of fair use, copyright laws and media ethics. Emphasis on knowledge regarding social media terms of service