Head of Specialized Support

The American Journalism Project (AJP) is seeking a Head of Specialized Support to join our Growth Investments team. This role will build a new function from the ground up that will offer subject matter expertise across an array of media, business, and technology-related functions of nonprofit local news organizations. The Head of Specialized Support will build a strategy and team to ensure our portfolio is benefiting from best practices, structured experimentation, and partnerships across all disciplines involved in building mission-driven, sustainable, and innovative local media organizations.

Building off the success of our Product & AI Studio, the Head of Specialized Support will develop and manage a team of AJP staff and external contractors in the areas of development, finance, product and AI, audience development, talent, marketing, sales, and growth strategy with the aim of building the resiliency of organizations in our portfolio. The specialized support team will add their expertise to our existing support structures (most notably the generalist coaching we already provide) in a way that provides expert coaching, group training, tools, and partnerships for our portfolio. The team will also drive innovation across the sector by leveraging the AJP community to build shared experiments across multiple markets resulting in nationally applicable insights.

This is a unique opportunity to join a growing, national movement to rebuild local news in communities across the country in a way that allows these organizations to better serve the public, while being sustainable and independent. AJP has raised over $175 million for the cause so far, and aims to catalyze enough investment in nonprofit local news to create a more than $2 billion sector by 2040, full of thriving, equitable, public service-oriented newsrooms that increase civic engagement and make communities work better for their residents.

Who we are

We’re an entrepreneurial team that’s 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. Since 2019, AJP has committed more than $63M of investment in over 40 nonprofit news organizations across the United States. Learn about our grantees.

Our team is deeply connected to our mission and supportive of each other’s 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.

Our team & impact

The Head of Specialized Support will report to the Head of Growth Investments and collaborate with our Vice Presidents of Growth Investments and Vice President of Portfolio Learning to develop and execute their strategy. Collectively these leaders of the Growth Investments team are charged with developing our portfolio of grantees; providing excellent coaching, expert support, and leadership development to leaders in our portfolio of grantees; and ensuring we are building community, insights, and resources from across our grantee portfolio. Our goal is to set all our grantees on a path to become best-in-class media organizations and nonprofit institutions with the sustainable resources to more adequately meet the information needs of their communities.

The position

The Head of Specialized Support will serve as a key senior leader charged with building a team of functional experts for our portfolio and managing that team to ensure that our portfolio is advancing in sophistication in their areas of expertise and thus building long term resiliency. This right candidate will use their baseline knowledge to serve as a thought partner to specialists across the various lines of expertise while also using their vision-setting and strategic acumen to ensure we have a solid framework for how we provide specialized support and that we have solid strategies in each area needed to operate a growing, impactful nonprofit newsroom. The successful candidate will also use their adaptability and innovative approach to inspire their new team to iterate and improve our support strategy as we execute toward our mission.

Specific responsibilities include but are not limited to:

Setting vision and building team:

Developing and evolving our strategy for providing specialized support to our portfolio – including leading our Product and AI Studio to advance its mission
Setting and managing toward clear outcomes in all areas of specialization supported by the team – ensuring that in each area we are offering baseline resources, leading strong learning experiences, creating partnerships and building communities of practice
Hiring and onboarding a team of AJP staff specialists in various areas of expertise as well as onboarding a small team of external consultants who will provide additional expertise to our portfolio

Leading the specialized support function:

Leading a team of experts to collaborate across our program team and develop strategies that will advance the work of our portfolio members
Mentoring team members on how to design and execute strong learning experiences, build experiments across multiple organizations and cultivate partnerships that result in new resources for our portfolio
Collaborating effectively across the organization to share the impact of our specialized support to steward the funding for the function and secure the funding for its growth

Serving as a senior leader on our Growth Investments team:

Navigating strategic conversations with grantee leaders about maximizing their organizational assets and overcoming challenges to growth, including staffing, organizational structure and culture, fundraising, earned revenue, board leadership, and local movement building
Actively networking in the local journalism ecosystem, building external relationships and a pipeline of current and future grantees, and pursuing strategic opportunities for new Growth Investments

Background & skills

We know not all strong candidates will have all the skills we list. That’s okay. 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 AJP 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…

Experience diagnosing assets and challenges to growth in media companies and creating plans to maximize growth potential
Experience in leadership within nonprofit news organizations and a track record of finding and delivering sustained impact for those organizations or experience coaching leaders of those organizations across their full business
Management experience of senior leaders is required; management coaching experience is preferable
Experience creating and executing a support strategy for a diverse group of constituents leveraging multiple tools in order to meet varied needs
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…

A person with strong outcomes orientation and accountability, adaptable, skilled at situational management (including being able to manage up, laterally, and down)
Excited about gaining experience growing sustainable news organizations, while putting your unique expertise and experience to impactful use
Enjoy building new strategies or functions within an organization
Have the desire to build a team that can support foundational elements of building a nonprofit newsroom while also pushing our portfolio to the forefront of innovation and adaptation
Enjoy the act of coaching leaders to achieve ambitious scale targets
Enthusiastic about tackling challenges in a fast-paced startup environment and continuously experimenting and seeing projects to completion that help news organizations succeed
Willing to think outside the box to solve problems for which there are not always blueprints for solutions
Highly empathetic; you have an affinity for collaborative work, a 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 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.

Compensation & 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 $185,008 – 203,508. Read about our benefits here.

What to expect in the hiring process

Our approach to hiring is to create a consistent and transparent process for all candidates. We hope to fill this role as soon as possible, though the hiring process can typically take from a few weeks to several months. We will do our best to communicate with you about timing expectations throughout the process.

Candidates who advance to later rounds of this process can expect multiple interviews with members of our hiring committee. Semi-finalists will be asked to complete a hiring exercise designed to help us understand your thinking and approach to the role, and you will be offered an optional prep session to ask any questions that will help you put your best foot forward in this process. We aim to truly get to know you, to help you fully understand the role you’re applying for, and to get to know your prospective team.

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 “Head of Specialized Support” in the subject line.

Information Session

On Oct. 29, 2024, we hosted a live information session on Zoom to share information about the Head of Specialized Support position with interested candidates. View a recording of this session below.

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