Local Media Association / Local Media Foundation

Job title: Managing Director, Word In Black

Job type/level: Full-time, 1-year renewable contract, director/senior director level 

Reports to: The Managing Director reports to LMA’s Chief Content and Collaboration Officer, Andrew Ramsammy. The LMA/LMF team provides a significant amount of access, support, and resources. In addition, a data journalist reports to the Managing Director, with plans for further growth and expansion in 2022. 

Location: Anywhere. LMA is a virtual organization. You must have access to high-speed internet (which LMA reimburses) and attend daily video meetings in a professional setting. 

Compensation: $95,000 (salary of $85,000 + incentive of $10,000) plus full benefits including health insurance, 401(k) plan, internet and cellphone stipends.

Job Summary: We seek an innovative, dynamic leader to guide, manage, and grow Word In Black, a groundbreaking digital startup backed by ten of the nation’s leading Black-owned publishers, managed by the Local Media Foundation. This collaborative seeks to confront inequities, elevate solutions and amplify the Black experience with a solutions journalism approach. The Managing Director is responsible for the editorial direction, collaborating with the ten publishers, including generating original content and leveraging local reporting for a national platform, events, and newsletters. A secondary goal is to create sustainable and scalable practices ensuring a healthy, independent, and free Black press. 

The essence of the job:

From the outset, most of the Managing Director’s efforts will focus on these responsibilities:

  1. Act as WordInBlack.com lead website editor, curator, and publisher. 
  2. Lead our weekly newsletter by engaging with publishers on editorial content, opinion pieces, and curation of original content from publishers and other contributors.  
  3. Produce and coordinate events that elevate the conversation around our editorial strategies, audience engagement, and revenue opportunities. 
  4. Lead and manage editorial discussions with WIB publishers, their reporters, and our partners. 
  5. Contribute to Word In Black daily and weekly editorial products like articles, web posts, newsletters, podcasts, and events. 
  6. Assist in securing and sourcing public, charitable foundations, and philanthropic funders and project-manage all funder deliverables and commitments. 
  7. Manage all related social media, marketing communications, relationship building, and public relations activities.

Characteristics we seek:

  • A person who has had extensive experience leading, managing, and guiding content reflective of unserved, underserved, underrepresented, or marginalized communities and networks.  
  • Someone who is exceptionally collaborative and can manage multiple projects, and stakeholders, across a spectrum of diverse engagements, experiences, and perspectives. 
  • A leader who is actively engaged in the outcomes of the publishers and collaboration with them as they tackle digital transformation, revenue generation, and audience engagement that drives equity while managing the editorial process.
  • Someone who can provide inclusive and nuanced feedback and explanation that leads to change understanding and long-term impact.

It probably won’t work out if:

  • You are not a team player. 
  • You have limited experience leading an editorial media enterprise. 
  • You don’t believe that legacy media and digital media can coexist. 
  • You don’t share the belief that a strong, independent, Black-owned press is vital to a healthy democracy. 

The deadline to apply to apply for this position has closed.