Audience Research Fellowship

About the Job
The Audience Research Fellow works directly with INN’s 425+ nonprofit news organization members on implementing actionable insights on their most engaged audiences. The fellow will work with INN staff and participating newsrooms to collect and analyze relevant audience data to inform strategic decisions.

We’re looking for someone who is interested in news audiences and approaches understanding their needs with curiosity and creativity and has a knack for translating those sentiments clearly to stakeholders across multiple contexts. This fellowship is for someone early in their career looking to build skills around understanding news audiences and eager to connect with newsrooms across the country to understand their needs.

Key Responsibilities

• Help with the design and fielding of audience research tools, including surveys, focus groups and other tools.
• Works with INN staff and partners to recruit and onboard news organizations for audience development programming.
• Meets with member newsrooms to understand audience needs and larger organizational goals.
• Drafts reports and presentations on research findings and assists in presentations to news organizations and the broader industry.
• Manages, cleans and imports data into database and analysis tools and assists with data analysis and visualization capacities.
• Collaborates with other INN team members to find connection points between INN’s programming that strengthens the resources available to members and the value they provide to their communities.
• Promotes INN’s audience work to INN members and the industry at large. This may include writing for INN’s blog, drafting email distribution and writing for external publications on behalf of INN.

Qualifications
We’re looking for someone who fits the description below.

• Knowledgeable and passionate: You know about the key challenges of the journalism and media landscape, and you might have some experience working in or with public interest organizations. You’re passionate about the news and information needs of communities, and have an awareness of the services INN’s growing membership provides.
• Community minded: You have a good sense of how communities are organized and can identify and explain the differing needs of constituencies within a news organization’s audience and the broader community context.
• Stories in numbers: You’re comfortable with basic data analysis tools, including Excel and Google Sheets and can identify and tell compelling and relatable stories from data. You may not know how to do everything with data, but you’re skilled at researching and asking the right questions to find solutions to novel problems.
• Communicator & presenter: You have excellent written and verbal communication skills and can clearly and concisely communicate how an idea maps to a particular organization’s context.
• 3+ years of relevant work experience. Self-directed with strong prioritization and time management skills, and the ability to build productive relationships with a fully remote and distributed team.

Even if you don’t tick every box on the job description, consider where you’re interested in growing your skills and what unique value you would bring to this role. Please use your brief cover letter to tell us how your own strengths and experiences would make you successful in this role.

More than 425 INN member newsrooms now produce more than 400,000 stories per year, focused on the public interest of each of their communities – and also collectively producing some of the country’s deepest coverage of key topics including rural issues, health, education and the environment. Their more than 3,000 journalists also produce broad coverage of local news issues of shared interest across many communities. They are committed to values of transparency in producing nonpartisan, public service content.

Questions on the position? Not sure if you should apply? Reach out to Sam Cholke, INN’s manager of distribution and audience growth, at sam@inn.org to learn more.

Pay and Benefits
This is a 9-month posting with a pay of between $50,000 – $60,000 over that time, depending on experience. INN’s benefits package includes employer-paid medical, vision, and dental insurance; employer-paid short-term disability insurance; and a 401K retirement plan with an employer contribution. INN staff get six (6) sick days per year, nine (9) fixed holidays and three (3) floating holiday/personal days per year, and earn up to 10 vacation days per year for the first two years.

This position is fully remote. INN offers support for a home-office set-up upon hiring and a monthly internet reimbursement.

How to apply
To apply for this role, submit a resume and brief cover letter via this form before Dec. 15. Questions can be submitted to sam@inn.org, but all applications must be submitted via the form. We are looking for someone to fill this position starting in March 2024.