The American Journalism Project is seeking an Editorial Impact Lead in our Knight Resiliency Lab to support our portfolio of fast-growing local news organizations in their efforts to develop resonant editorial strategies and implement evaluation frameworks that help measure impact on the communities they serve. This role will also be charged with fueling experimentation and innovation in new emerging local news formats and form editorial-related partnerships on behalf of the portfolio.

Nonprofit local news is a burgeoning sector in which some practices are well established in journalism and media and others are still under development. With public service at their core, nonprofit news organizations have an opportunity to redefine, or more clearly define, the goals of their journalism and to build sustainable organizations that produce news products that are indispensable to the communities they serve, have impact on those communities, and are responsive to the needs of their markets.

The Editorial Impact Lead will serve as our coach and specialist on how to maximize and track the impact of local news organizations. They will lead the charge on helping our organizational and editorial leaders understand product-market fit and the value of setting a north star for their work, to develop a strategy that works backwards from their intended outcomes and to effectively operationalize their strategies internally while building a community of support externally. They will study and track developments in the media industry to help our grantees navigate the changing landscape for everything from AI to translation and events to achieve more impact and reach. Out of their work with our grantees, the Editorial Impact Lead will also work with AJP’s program team to further hone the metrics we use to assess and track the impact and progress of our portfolio, with the ultimate goal of answering the question: can we meet local information needs and strengthen communities?

Who we are

We’re a small but entrepreneurial team working to re-shape the future of local news in our country. We’re passionate about journalism, civic engagement, and how local news plays a unique role in shaping our democracy. We help build and grow sustainable local news organizations all over the country — through financial investment, venture support, and movement building — that are governed by, sustained by, and look like the public they serve. Learn about our portfolio.

AJP has raised over $225 million for the cause so far, and aims to catalyze enough investment in nonprofit local news to create thriving, equitable, public service-oriented newsrooms that increase civic engagement and make communities work better for their residents.

Our team is deeply connected to our mission and supportive of each others’ goals and overall well-being. We aim to be an organization where everyone feels heard, respected, and valued. We are an entirely remote, distributed team and strive to maintain a healthy, fun, and productive workplace, working alongside smart, energetic colleagues who enjoy one another and the work. Meet our full team.

Our values

• Local First: We know that local journalism must serve and be led by local communities. We make a practice of listening to, and making decisions with – not for – those communities, and connecting them to find strength in each other.
• Bold Leadership: We understand the severe economic challenge facing local news and thus democracy, and we embrace a sense of possibility with courage, urgency, and perseverance.
• Constant Learning: We recognize the unknown in front of us. Therefore, we operate with humility and a commitment to continuous improvement and collaboration.
• Commitment to Equity: We commit to creating a better, more diverse, and more inclusive news media that advances human and civil rights. We actively fight against injustice and racism, and that starts with doing the work ourselves.
• Integrity: We accept the responsibility of earning trust every day. We operate with honesty, transparency, dignity, and respect, and without allegiance to party, ideology, profit, or power.

Your team

Our program team is catalyzing the nonprofit field by building a portfolio of organizations at every stage. We invest growth capital in existing organizations and we are seeding new organizations in partnership with philanthropy.

You will join a team responsible for supporting this portfolio in establishing and evolving outstanding newsroom strategy and operations. You will report to the head of the Startup Studio & Local News Innovation and work alongside the Specialized Support Team, a team of experts who drive excellence across a variety of functional areas of our portfolio organizations, leading to their growth and resilience. This work includes developing baseline resources, leading strong learning experiences, creating new partnerships, and building communities of practice.

The position

Drawing from the American Journalism Project’s research in markets around the country, experience launching and investing in local news organizations and other approaches and methodologies, the Editorial Impact Lead will operate as a consultant to our grantees. They will develop and socialize tools to help news organizations connect their activities with trackable short-, medium-, and long-term outcomes that drive strategy internally and help them articulate their value propositions externally. They will work closely with our program team to assess our portfolio and better understand our grantees’ pain points and needs in program strategy development, including staff training, establishing the right objectives and key results for their missions and strategies, and workflow design. They will develop curricula for organizations in different scenarios and stages of development, and work deeply with program leaders at our grantee organizations on a project basis.

In this role you will have the following responsibilities:

Define, assess, and optimize editorial impact for local news organizations

• Study and evolve AJP’s logic model for local news, connecting newsroom activities to outcomes, and other best practices and methodologies learned from our portfolio and the field to continuously evolve and improve our perspective and approach to ensuring nonprofit news organizations are delivering on their desired impact
• Collaborate with our team of Success Partners (an internal term for our team members who act as strategic thought partners and primary contacts for AJP’s nonprofit news grantees) and leaders from our Specialized Support and Portfolio Learning teams to identify metrics that we can easily collect, standardize and analyze to monitor portfolio organizations program impact on an ongoing basis
• Assess portfolio organizations’ product-market fit including, but not limited to, observable information gaps, local market penetration, and other factors that fit into the logic model
• Develop strong insights around program strategy that can be leveraged by news organizations and our staff more broadly

Serve as specialist to portfolio organizations

• Develop programs and tools for working with the leaders of our portfolio organizations at different stages of development, to undergo strategic planning, internal culture building, and other adjustments that would be effective in better measuring and delivering impact with their journalism
• Help newsrooms launch new programmatic endeavors that increase their impact or enable them to serve more communities
• Build strong relationships with grantee organizations and work directly with them one on one through coaching and consultations to ensure they are able to break through barriers to their growth and to learn and apply strategic thinking in the development of their newsrooms
• Support newsroom leaders in building positive newsroom cultures and in managing their teams to the organizations’ visions

Build and execute learning experiences and communities

• Build a community of newsroom leaders and other program specialists common across the portfolio that collaborate with one another, share insights and experiment together
• Partner with VP, Portfolio Learning, to develop and lead virtual or in-person accelerators or workshops aimed at building the knowledge, skills and mindsets of those across our portfolio
• Craft resources, such as templates, toolkits, slide decks, case studies, and guides, that empower Success Partners and grantees to be more intentional about linking their newsgathering work to desired outcomes, and improve their internal operations

Cultivate relationships & partnerships in the local news and digital media space

• Leverage the national scale of AJP to develop partnerships that enhance impact, generate new resources or reduced costs for our portfolio of news organizations
• Source, vet, and scope out opportunities to partner with vendors, consultants, and other service providers who may be able to enhance grantees’ program needs, from translation and copy editing support to awards applications, talent development, and portfolio-wide program funding opportunities
• Actively network in the local journalism ecosystem, building external relationships to ensure AJP is learning from across the industry; monitor innovations and best practices throughout the industry and develop case studies and other methods for cross-pollination and experimentation
• Actively build a network of journalism and digital media talent and cultivate their interest in nonprofit local news

Background and skills

This role is part of a new program at AJP to offer specialized support to grantees and further enable their growth and impact. The successful candidate will have leadership experience in daily, digital-first newsrooms and a track record of leading teams to produce impactful journalism. They will be passionate about the role local news plays in communities and care deeply about its future; they will be eager to learn about the latest most innovative practices in local journalism and digital media; have an interest in strategy, operations, and management; and have experience in setting and executing strategy, and guiding, influencing, and developing newsroom leaders.

We know not all strong candidates will have all the skills we list. That’s OK. Research shows that women and people of color are less likely to apply for a position if they don’t meet every skill listed. At the American Journalism Project we are committed to creating a better, more diverse, and more inclusive news ecosystem, and that starts with doing the work ourselves. So if your past experience doesn’t align perfectly, but you know this is the role for you – please tell us!

An ideal candidate will have…

• Significant experience in leadership or management roles at daily newsrooms and an understanding of complex editorial workflows with multiple dependencies and moving parts
• Interest, readiness, and willingness to continuously learn and upskill on leadership and management best practices
• Passion for developing, mentoring and coaching leaders and managers in strategic frameworks and execution
• Excellent written and verbal communication skills, including the ability to synthesize large amounts of information and clearly communicate key insights, with a strong grasp of business concepts and numbers; must be a persuasive communicator
• An understanding of the value of diversity, equity, and inclusion in workplaces, newsrooms, and coverage; willingness to learn and coach others through operationalizing equity and inclusion
• Meticulous attention to detail and accuracy in documentation

This role is a fit if you are…

• Excited about gaining hands-on experience growing sustainable news organizations and shaping a fast-growing area of journalism, while putting your journalism skills and experience to impactful use
• Enthusiastic about building trusting relationships with newsroom leaders and partnering with them in achieving results for their teams and the communities they serve
• Enthusiastic about tackling challenges in a fast-paced environment, and have the stamina to continuously experiment and see projects to completion that help nascent news organizations succeed
• Willing to think outside the box to solve problems for which there are no blueprints for solutions
• Highly empathetic; you have an affinity for collaborative work, love for mentoring and inspiring others, and doing whatever it takes to get them to successful outcomes
• Accustomed to working in environments where feedback is liberally given and taken
• Intellectually curious, a strategic thinker and an innovative problem-solver, including a proven ability to create and manage organizational change
• A person with strong personal responsibility and accountability, results-oriented, adaptable, skilled at situational management (including being able to manage up, laterally, and down)
• A person with passion for making the country a better, more equitable and just place for its residents by helping to build a new local news ecosystem across the U.S.
• Ready to travel as needed but also excited to work for a remote organization (we are a fully virtual team; however, we estimate this person would need to travel approximately 6-10 times a year)

Compensation and benefits

Our total compensation package is competitive in the nonprofit and philanthropic sectors, and we are committed to supporting our team with what they need to show up every day, ready to bolster the local press our democracy deserves.

We benchmark our salaries against similar organizations, and use a scale that considers job complexity and magnitude of responsibility to determine role levels and corresponding base salaries, as well as offer regular opportunities for salary increases. The salary range for this position is $156,922 – $172,615. Read about our benefits here.

What to expect in the hiring process

Our hiring process is designed to be thorough, transparent, and consistent for all candidates. We take the time to truly get to know you — and for you to get to know us — because we believe that finding the right fit is essential for both sides.

Positions at AJP are unique within the field, so we want to give you a real sense of what the work looks like day-to-day. That’s why our process includes opportunities for you to demonstrate your skills in ways that mirror the role’s responsibilities. We also want to ensure that you have a clear understanding of our team, our expectations, and whether this is a role where you can thrive.

The timeline for our hiring process varies, typically ranging from several weeks to a few months. We will keep you informed about timing expectations along the way. Candidates who advance to later rounds will have multiple interviews with members of our hiring committee, and may be asked to complete a hiring exercise designed to showcase your thinking and approach to the role. We recognize the time and effort this requires, so we provide compensation for hiring exercises. Ultimately, our goal is to ensure a great match — for you and for us — so that if you join our team, you’ll be set up to do meaningful, impactful work.

Please submit an application through our portal. Download the full job description here. If you have any questions please feel free to email careers@theajp.org with “Editorial Impact Lead” in the subject line.

Information session

AJP is hosting an information session on Thursday, August 14, 2025, at 6 p.m. ET, for all candidates interested in learning more about the Editorial Impact Lead role. Attendees will hear directly from the hiring manager and other team members.

The Information Session will be held via Zoom webinar. Please click here to register.

The American Journalism Project is dedicated to equal employment opportunities for all applicants and employees. The American Journalism Project encourages people of all races, colors, national origins, ancestries, creeds, religions, genders, ages, disabilities, veteran status, sexual orientations, and marital statuses to apply.