LION Membership and Communications Manager

Title: Membership and Communications Manager
Status: Full-time
Location: Remote
Salary: $60,000
Benefits: Eligible for benefits.

Job description: Have you ever dreamed of starting your own news publication? Do you already have several side projects you love throwing your energy into? Are you passionate about helping create and support an independent local news ecosystem across the U.S.? Keep reading.

LION is a journalism association supporting independent local online news publishers. Our mission is to help local news entrepreneurs build and grow financially sustainable small businesses. We plan to do that by achieving these three strategic goals: helping LION members become sustainable; helping LION become sustainable and creating LION as the destination for news entrepreneurs who want to start a local media business.

Our executive director helps raise money and set organizational strategy; our revenue and operations director ensures our books are in order and explores new revenue streams; and our programming director makes sure that through our programming and communications work our members feel supported and energized.

And now we need you: a membership and communications manager. Titles never fully encompass the work we all do, and this one is no different. Here’s some of the work we’d love your help with:

• Develop and execute a strategic communications plan for LION as an organization and for our LION members
• Facilitate conversations in our members-only communication platforms, including Facebook and Slack
• Design programming and trainings for existing and future members, including the LION Expert Network and LION Lessons
• Respond to existing and potential members’ ideas, questions and concerns
• Select the speakers, sessions and other programming for our annual conference
• Organize annual conference and other regional events’ logistics
• Contribute research to an upcoming project that will create a starter pack for aspiring local news entrepreneurs
• Assist revenue and operations director with the research and development of a membership database
• And whatever else you want to dream up!

You should also be prepared to work for an organization that’s:

• Scrappy and operates leanly
• In the process of building a strategic plan and still has many unknowns (read: possibilities!) on the horizon
• A small distributed team that relies on digital communication and occasional in-person meetings to communicate and collaborate with each other

This is a grant-funded position and you’ll report to programming director Anika Anand.

If you choose to apply, and are chosen to be interviewed, be prepared to talk about your mid-term and long-term career goals and how LION can help support you in achieving them; how you hope to grow this role; and what you, specifically, can contribute to LION’s potential as the go-to place for local media entrepreneurs.

Submit your application using this form by February 2, 2020. We ask for:

• Your resume
• Any online links that show your work (a Twitter profile, a portfolio page, etc.)
• Why do you think it’s important to help more local news entrepreneurs create local news startups?
• What are your career ambitions and how can LION help you achieve those goals?
• Tell us about a time you created something from scratch. What did you create? How did you begin the process? Was it a success? What did you learn?
• Tell us about a time you failed at something. What happened? What did you learn?

If you have any questions, please email Anika Anand at [email protected].

________________________________

LION Publishers encourages applications from diverse backgrounds and underrepresented communities. We desire to build an organization and grow a membership that welcomes and encourages participation from all interested individuals.