Too many people have misunderstood the Rolling Stones lyric to mean that you CAN’T EVER get what you want, but, being the analytical type, you’re aware of the logical corollary: sometimes you CAN get what you want.
But we digress. The point is, this is a gig that you quite decidedly want, and, if you’re a master of digital analytics, we believe that you just might find that you’re what this organization needs.
You’ll be gathering, analyzing, synthesizing, and reporting on data for the editorial and other teams at one of the country’s oldest and best-known news organizations. They’ve been building a world-class analytical function across the company, so you’ll be joining a team that’s already made some great inroads but is still in the sky’s-the-limit/let’s-see-what-this-baby-can-do phase. It promises fast-paced action, intellectual challenge, and tons of room for growth.
Think of yourself as being, essentially, the data-driven voice in the room. The person who listens to the editors brainstorming about content and platforms and then says things like, “Good idea, but the numbers suggest that that’s really more of a web-only story,” or, “I can tell you right now that that’s going to really resonate with the 18-35-year-olds and leave the Boomers cold,” or, “Tell me more about what you have in mind and I’ll build a tool to capture the data.”
Much of your work will center on the question of data products — having the right kinds of analytical tools in place to capture what needs to be captured — no small challenge in the rapid-fire multi-platform ecosystem of 24/7 news, in which content can sometimes have an astonishingly short shelf life. Your job will be to make sure that things can be properly forecasted and benchmarked — with the analysis as automated and repetitive as possible — in order to help people make better decisions.
There’s also an “at-large” quality to this role: You will not be bureaucratically pinned down and instead will move across departments, offering your talents where they’re needed. Sometimes you’ll tackle a special project. Sometimes you’ll help the CEO prepare a data-intensive presentation. Sometimes you’ll help an audience-development team conduct A/B testing. And in this way, of course, you’ll get to wow tons of people, at all levels of the org, convincing them of your awesomeness.
Analytics isn’t something you bumbled into: Your career choice is a reflection of the way you see the world, as consisting of order to be discerned from within seeming chaos. That’s why you’ve spent years honing the technical skills that allow you to amass and examine data and come away confident in what the numbers are saying. Obviously that means deep intimacy with the likes of Google Analytics, Tableau, and R, as well as an eagerness to stay out in front of new software developments and statistical methods.
Ideally, you’ve done this sort of work for a media company in the past and thus have a good understanding of the challenges specific to the industry. You’re outgoing and collaborative, comfortable dropping in on different departments, happy to chip in where you can. Finally — and crucially — you possess that rare gift of the ability not only to get the right answer from the data but to communicate that right answer to decision-makers along with a rationale that makes sense to people who don’t live and breathe data the way you do.
Inside Skinny
Although, as stated earlier, this gig is data-product-focused, be ready to talk about your facility with the other two main components of analytics work: analysis/insights and data tech (how to capture data across platforms).
Net Net
Huge company. Choose-your-own adventure role. Constant intellectual stimulation. C’mon. We know you want it, and we believe you CAN get it.
All qualified applicants will receive consideration without regard to race, color, religion, sex, national origin, creed, age, sexual orientation, veteran status, marital status, disability, or any other status protected by applicable law.
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