About Chicago Public Media
Chicago Public Media is home to WBEZ , Chicago’s NPR news source and one of the largest and most respected public media stations in the country, as well as urban alternative music station, Vocalo . The organization serves the community with fact-based, objective news and information. WBEZ’s award-winning journalists ask tough questions, dig deep for answers and expose truths that spark change and foster understanding. In addition to its local and national news programming, WBEZ Chicago is home to a growing portfolio of popular podcasts, including the “Making” series of Making Beyoncé, Making Obama and Making Oprah; an investigative podcast series, Motive; 16 Shots: A podcast about the fatal police shooting of Laquan McDonald; Nerdette; and Curious City. WBEZ Chicago has a legacy of innovation as the birthplace of nationally acclaimed programs such as This American Life and Wait Wait...Don’t Tell Me! and the ground-breaking podcast, Serial.
Chicago Public Media has recently acquired the Chicago Sun-Times, one of the Chicago’s two major daily newspapers and among the most storied dailies in the nation. With the Chicago Sun-Times and WBEZ, Chicago Public Media is now home to one of the largest teams of journalists of any local news organization in the nation. Under the banner of Chicago Public Media, WBEZ and the Chicago Sun-Times will reach more than 2 million people a week in the Chicago area across broadcast, print, and digital channels. Backed by a significant philanthropic commitment, Chicago Public Media plans to substantially increase its investment in local journalism by hiring additional reporters, producers and newsroom personnel in the months and years ahead.
The Opportunity
Chicago Public Media is seeking a Director of Audience Insights to lead our efforts to use data to better understand users needs and habits in support of audience growth, engagement and revenue goals across our family of public media brands, including WBEZ, Chicago Sun-Times and Vocalo.
We’re looking for someone who is excited to use data and insights to grow the audience for our independent, local journalism brands by identifying both what’s working and what new opportunities we should explore. Your work will help guide experimentation and innovation in support of making local news better and more sustainable.
This hands-on leadership role is a great fit for a strong technical analyst, eager to work with newsroom, marketing and product leadership to continuously improve our efforts to better serve our community. You should be a quick learner, open to new ideas, and enjoy finding solutions to both technical and strategic challenges.
General Responsibilities
Provide actionable audience insights to reporters, editors, and organizational leadership for the purpose of increasing audience reach, engagement, and conversion into addressable relationships.
Provide expertise for testing and measuring new initiatives across content, membership, and marketing.
Scope, design, and develop reports, dashboards, and analyses in support of key company initiatives and special projects
Collaborate with product managers, developers, and data architect to implement data collection and reporting systems that serve internal clients across departments.
Collaborate with cross-functional teams in order to optimize our audience and member funnels as well as the audience digital journey.
Drive adoption of data-driven culture by presenting internal and industry insights, identifying new opportunities, and uncovering challenges.
Qualifications
Comprehensive knowledge of measurement in digital media channels including email, SEO, social media, paid marketing, web, app, broadcast, digital streaming, podcast, and online transaction tools.
A track record of success in developing, maintaining, and advancing data systems for driving business success.
Ability to work with relational database, large data sets, and data visualization tools
Demonstrated technical proficiency with writing complex SQL statements and queries, data processing, and scripting languages such as Javascript, Python, and R.
Entrepreneurial instincts and a creative approach to problem solving. You should have an eye for the big picture, but also enjoy rolling up your sleeves to get hands-on with day-to-day data operations.
Outstanding communication skills and an ability to work with technical and non-technical users to advance the use of data to support initiatives throughout the organization.
Detail oriented and strong project management skills, ability to juggle projects with many cross-functional teams.
Experience using training, collaboration and delegation to scale the impact and value of your work across the organization.
Ability to prioritize and communicate effectively to deliver insights on time and according to strategic goals.
Experience working in an agile environment and using story management tools such as Jira, Confluence, and Azure DevOps is preferred.
You should be familiar with at least some of the tools we use, including Google Analytics 360, GA4, Google Tag Manager, and Google Search console; data visualization tools such as Power BI, Google Data Studio, and Tableau; Google Trends, Google Adwords, Facebook Analytics, Twitter Analytics, and other Google Cloud Services. Nielsen, Salesforce Marketing Cloud, Campaign Monitor, AdWizz, Hubspot, and on-demand audio services are preferred.
We know there are great candidates who may not meet all of our criteria in this job posting — or who have important skills we haven’t included. We still want to hear from you, particularly because we know that women and people of color are less likely to apply for positions where this is true. If you have questions about the position, contact Celeste LeCompte at clecompte@chicagopublicmedia.org
This is a full-time position reporting to the Chief Audience Officer. We are a hybrid workplace, with offices at two iconic locations in the city — Navy Pier and the Old Post Office — and flexible schedules for in-office days.
Working at Chicago Public Media
At Chicago Public Media, we care deeply about our employees as we know attracting, developing, and growing talent is key to our success and enhancing our impact. Our culture is one where collaboration, ideas, and innovation are encouraged. We value colleagues who will enhance our culture by bringing new ideas, diverse experiences, and talents to our dynamic workplace.
Chicago Public Media’s dedication to promoting diversity and inclusion is reflective across our brands, WBEZ 91.5 FM and Vocalo 91.1 FM, in our staff and in our work. We are fully focused on equality of opportunity and believe deeply in diversity of race, gender, sexual orientation, religion, ethnicity, national origin, experience, and all other fascinating characteristics that make us different.
At Chicago Public Media we believe dedication to a great workplace includes supporting our employees and their families. As a result, we provide a broad and generous benefits package for you at hire and in the years to come.
Our benefits include:
The essential functions described above are not all-inclusive and may change periodically to meet the needs of Chicago Public Media (CPM). The information contained in this job description is not intended to create any contractual or other legal commitment. Chicago Public Media may change the content or format of this job at any time in its sole and exclusive discretion without notice.
Chicago Public Media is an Equal Opportunity Employer, and we actively seek and welcome people from all backgrounds, orientations, and life experiences to join our team.