Join Our Team: Westword Is Hiring an Audience Strategist

Voice Media Group is expanding its audience development team. We’re looking for a collaborative audience strategist to help grow and engage our readership across multiple platforms. The role is embedded in the Westword newsroom in Denver and will work with both the Westword newsroom and the Dallas Observer newsroom (remotely). 

Since I joined Voice Media in 2023, I’m proud of all we’ve accomplished on the audience front. We’ve hired social media editors for each of our newsrooms, an SEO specialist who has since evolved into an audience strategist role (and who will focus on our Miami and Phoenix newsrooms in 2026), a part-time audience strategist focused on newsletters, and a head of membership to oversee and develop our program of loyal readers who pay to support our work and mission.

And with that, we’ve seen great growth across the company. Our social channels have more than 2.3M followers, with 334 million impressions and garnering more than 106 million video views in 2025. Newsletters have more than 578K subscribers, and we’ve added to our portfolio of offerings. With an ongoing focus on SEO best practices, trending and evergreen content strategies, our Google traffic bucks against the larger losses being reported by the industry. And our membership program has grown 48 percent in 2025, surpassing 3.4K paying members who support our work.

Heading into 2026, audience development is at the forefront of our industry. Audiences are segmented and scattered, consuming news in more places and in more formats than ever before. For small, scrappy newsrooms, this is an ongoing struggle: How do we analyze more audience insights to help shape our strategies and inform editors while also ensuring our journalism is readily available where readers want to find us?

Growing our audience team keeps us stepping in that direction.

The audience strategist will test ideas and drive audience growth. If you like the challenge of problem-solving, spotting audience growth opportunities and testing new strategies, and also have a deep understanding of digital journalism trends, this is for you. This is a hybrid role combining editorial judgment, audience development and platform expertise to drive reach, loyalty and impact. 

Throughout the week, you’ll analyze data across audience channels and communicate those insights with the newsroom; manage and at times add voice to our newsletters; pitch (and occasionally write) quick-hit trending stories and sidebar-style pieces; send can’t-miss alerts when news breaks and help us test podcast development. You’ll work with editors to run point on homepages daily, ensuring they reflect our biggest stories, keeping the pages sharp, timely and irresistible. 

If you have sharp instincts and solid news judgment, thrive in a fast-paced environment, and get a thrill out of growing and engaging audiences in creative ways, we want to hear from you.

This role is based in Denver and reports to the Voice Media Group editorial director (hey, that’s me). Remote candidates will not be considered.

Key Responsibilities

• Analytics and reporting: This role lives in the data, monitoring metrics, and audience behaviors to refine strategies and inform decision-making. You’ll regularly review audience metrics and share insights with newsroom teams to inform content and distribution decisions. The role will also communicate KPIs and audience insights to local sales teams, helping to drive sales opportunities.
• Content optimization and story pitching: Collaborate with editorial teams to implement SEO best practices and social strategies, enhancing story reach for search engines and social channels. You’ll work with editors to develop SEO and social headlines that a reader can’t skip. The role will also support newsrooms by analyzing audience behaviors and pitching stories, writing quick-hit trending stories or sidebar-style pieces, or revising evergreen or existing content.
• Newsletter strategy: From writing to editing and analyzing the performance of daily and weekly newsletters, you’ll help take our current newsletters to the next level. You’ll collaborate with editorial staff to align newsletter content with newsroom priorities, test subject lines, formats and send times for optimal performance, and identify opportunities for new newsletters that will drive audience growth and engagement, and build audience loyalty.
• Landing page curation: Work with editors to curate the homepage and section pages to reflect editorial priorities and breaking news, balancing evergreen, trending and breaking content to optimize engagement. 
• Push notification management: Manage push alerts that drive traffic without sacrificing clarity or trust through website push notifications. We aren’t there yet, but in the near future, this role will help develop and launch SMS messaging alerts for readers.
• Audience experimentation: You’ll work with newsrooms to test new audience channels, such as podcasts, shaping podcast concepts based on audience needs, trends, and newsroom priorities, and helping us get podcasts off the ground.

Who You Are

• At least four years of experience in a digital newsroom or audience engagement role
• A native of digital journalism who’s comfortable using analytics to drive decisions and serve our audiences
• Strong editorial judgment and a nose for what resonates with readers 
• An audience-first strategist who is excited to try new things and pivot quickly as audience behaviors change
• Experience with SEO, GEO, site organization, newsletters, podcasts and like products that reach new audiences and build audience loyalty 
• Ability to prioritize workloads and tasks
• Excellent writing and editing skills, with the ability to write sharp copy across formats
• Familiarity with email platforms (Sailthru, Mailchimp, Campaign Monitor, etc.)
• Strong interpersonal and communication skills, both written and verbal

Benefits

• Compensation range of $60,000 to $75,000, depending on experience
• 401(k) with company match
• Medical, dental, vision, life and disability insurance
• In the first year: 10 paid holidays, 10 paid vacation days, 5 paid sick days
• Hybrid work policy based in our Denver office

To Apply

Voice Media Group believes our journalism best serves our communities with a culturally diverse staff and freelancers who offer a range of voices. We are committed to creating and sustaining an environment of inclusion, diversity, empowerment and equality. We are at our best when all our team members are respected and included regardless of race, age, ethnicity, religion, gender identity, disability, sexual orientation and national origin. Women, veterans, people with disabilities, people of color and gender-nonconforming candidates are highly encouraged to apply.

Think you’ve got what it takes? Email a resume and a cover letter to audience-strategist@voicemediagroup.com with “Audience Strategist” as the subject line.