Posted On: March 29, 2019
Journalism Job
Media Organization: Report for America
Company Description
DRi is an executive search and development consulting firm ranked by Forbes Magazine as one of the country’s best executive recruiters. We focus on building the capacity of non-profits by recruiting senior executives and coaching their teams to adopt bold strategic plans and design powerful fundraising programs. We are privileged to work with some of the sector’s finest organizations and institutions—enterprises that touch lives and strengthen communities across the nation and around the globe.
Job Description
The crisis in journalism threatens democracy – which is why we need a dramatic new approach to reinvigorating journalism, especially at the local level.
Report for America (reportforamerica.org/) is a national service program that places talented emerging journalists in local newsrooms to report on under-covered issues and communities. We are calling on a new generation of journalists to serve in community news organizations across the country. We recently announced substantial new funding and that our second corps would have 60 reporters -- a dramatic increase from the first class of 13.
The program was co-founded in September 2017 by journalist/entrepreneurs Steven Waldman and Charles Sennott as an initiative of The GroundTruth Project (thegroundtruthproject.org/). It is backed by the Knight Foundation, Facebook, the Google News Initiative, the Ford Foundation and others.
We are looking for a talented National Director to help run this ambitious and crucially important program. With a growing staff of 6 and a $2.7M operating budget, the National Director, in partnership with the RFA Co-founders, will help build and manage a strong team and will manage the relationships with the news organizations where corps members are placed.
This position is based in Brooklyn, NY and will report to the President of Report for America, Steven Waldman. The GroundTruth Project is based at WGBH in Boston.
RESPONSIBILITIES INCLUDE:
The National Director will manage all staff focused on recruitment, corps member applications, service projects, training, and the corps experience. S/he will also be responsible for managing the relationships with RFA news outlet partners. S/he will be responsible for:
● The application process for would-be corps members that will allow RFA to grow from pilot phase to a movement.
● The professional application process for the 40-50 host news organizations RFA partners with.
● The corps training and mentorship strategies throughout the year.
● Overall communications and shaping the brand.
● Recruitment of both the news organizations and corps members.
● Working with shared services at the GroundTruth Project on budgeting, financial planning and fundraising.
SKILLS AND EXPERIENCE INCLUDE:
● Experience as a leader of a non-profit or service organization.
● Entrepreneurial skills and practical experience in both journalism and public service. (Ideally, journalism experience would include work in local news. Public service might include work with or participation in national or community service programs, military service or other non-profit organizations).
● Experience as part of a team that has scaled a startup organization.
● Great organizational skills, with experience in operations.
● A passion for the cause of local journalism and public service.
● A sense of humor!
● The ability to collaborate with wide varieties of people and an understanding of the spirit of a startup.
● Success at recruiting diverse teams, including diversity of ethnicity, gender, economic background and perspective.
● Excellent management abilities, both down and up.
● Commitment to and understanding of high quality, objective, local journalism.
(We don’t expect the candidates to be rock stars in all of these skills but this is our ideal!)
SALARY AND BENEFITS
Salary is commensurate with experience. RFA offers a variety of benefits including group health, dental, and vision coverage, group life and personal accident insurance, adoption assistance, commuter benefits, health care savings accounts, an employer assistance program, and marketplace discounts. Additional voluntary benefits include a voluntary retirement savings 403(b) plan, additional group life and personal accident insurance, and short and long-term disability insurance.
To Apply
Report for America has retained DRi Consulting to assist with this search. To apply, please send a resume and cover letter to reportforamerica+136453@submissions.submittable.com, subject line: Report for America, National Director.