LION is hiring a Director of Membership

Title: Director of Membership, LION Publishers
Status: Full-time
Location: Remote
Salary: $90,000
Benefits: Eligible for benefits
How to apply: Submit your application using this form by August 30.

Job description:

We’re looking for someone who deeply understands the needs of our members, can design product offerings for them, and communicate those offerings to existing and potential members to grow the LION membership and strengthen the broader independent news industry.

Over the past two years, LION Publishers has grown into a $3 million journalism association with over 250 members and a staff that’s tripled from three to nine. We’ve launched a suite of programs, including the Google News Initiative Startups Boot Camp, Startups Lab, and the Tiny News Collective, to help existing entrepreneurs become sustainable and aspiring entrepreneurs launch news businesses.

As an association, our strength lies in our members, and how well we continue to meet their needs will determine LION’s ability to have an outsized impact on the future of the independent news industry. That’s why we’re searching for a Director of Membership who will lead this work.

Here’s what we anticipate your responsibilities to be:

Lead membership growth and retention strategy

• In collaboration with communications manager, design a marketing strategy to attract new LION members
• In collaboration with the membership programming manager and others across LION teams, explore opportunities to create new LION member benefits
• Ensure day to day operations of membership internal workflows, processes and team communication run smoothly and make adjustments as needed
• Propose updated membership levels and criteria as members’ needs change and LION grows
• Ensure that LION’s team understands member needs and is adjusting and updating its membership offerings to ensure long-term value and membership retention

Oversee LION communications strategy and signature program marketing

• Collaborate with the communications manager to ensure communication across all platforms for members and external stakeholders reflects our organizational values
• Work closely with programming team to lead distribution and promotion of LION signature programs and applications
• Offer data-informed insights for LION-created content, including members to profile, industry trends to highlight and resources to aggregate

Serve as a key collaborator and adviser on other work across LION

• Collaborate with operations and data team to collect and synthesize market and member research to inform product offerings
• Collaborate with deputy director to pitch potential partners and sponsors to provide member benefits and funds for additional research
• Collaborate with the director of teaching and learning to ensure members’ needs are being met through membership-only programming
• Oversee and advise the membership programming manager on the LION Awards

These are some of the key skills and competencies we’re looking for in our ideal candidate. We know that not all candidates will have all the skills and experience we’ve listed, and that’s okay. We encourage you to apply and tell us what you bring to the table.

• Benefits design and marketing: You can synthesize market research and qualitative/quantitative data to inform the design of membership offerings, and market those offerings to potential members in a way that builds empathy and trust, particularly with those from historically underrepresented backgrounds
• Community management and customer service: You have managed a free or paid membership-based community and member experience and understand how to navigate common challenges, particularly in introducing new members while making existing members feel valued.
• Communications and programming storytelling: You can collect information on LION and its members’ stories and translate it into a compelling, inspiring vision for the future of the independent news industry.
• Iterative systems-oriented thinking: Uses a test and learn approach to building effective and efficient systems to manage membership and outreach/marketing.
• Build and manage a team: You have some supervisory experience and enjoy coaching people on your team while stepping in to provide hands-on help as needed.
• Energized by the idea of serving news startups: You may not have direct experience in a newsroom or in the journalism industry, but you are excited by the prospect of supporting news entrepreneurs who want to build sustainable local independent news businesses.

You’ll be managing a team of two (our communications manager and membership programming manager); working closely with our director of teaching and learning and director of finance and operations; and reporting to the deputy director.

Submit your application using this form by August 15, 2021.