Nonprofit Remote Digest - Issue #641
Threshold is a public radio show and podcast that tackles one pressing environmental issue each season. We report the story where it's happening through a range of voices and perspectives. Our goal is to be a home for nuanced journalism about human relationships with the natural world.
Threshold — www.thresholdpodcast.org Threshold is a nonprofit podcast and public radio show focusing on one pressing environmental issue each season. Our independent journalism explores stories where they are happening and features a range of voices and perspectives.
Managing Editor
Auricle Productions is seeking a managing editor to join the team of our Peabody Award-winning podcast, Threshold. The managing editor combines the keen editorial skills of an experienced audio storyteller with the practical focus of an operations manager. Employing excellent organizational and interpersonal abilities, you will help guide our show into its next phase of growth, taking a leadership role in expanding, training, and managing the production team, developing new projects, and helping to edit and elevate everything we release.
The managing editor will work collaboratively with our small, fully remote staff, reporting to the executive producer and supervising other members of the production team. An alternative title for this position is supervising producer.
ABOUT US
Auricle Productions is a nonprofit journalism organization. We produce Threshold, a podcast that tackles one pressing environmental issue each season, making connections between history, culture, science, and politics. Our show has won multiple national awards, including an Edward R. Murrow award and a Peabody.
The ultimate goal of all our work at Auricle Productions is to create compelling, sound-rich stories that spark emotion, generate new thoughts and questions, and invite as many people as possible into the conversation about the defining environmental issues of our time.
Before applying for this position, please listen to some of our work.
ABOUT THE POSITION
The managing editor will work at the intersection of story-making, team building, and project management. You’ll spearhead the process of finding and training a growing roster of reporters from a wide variety of backgrounds and locations, including other countries. Anti-racism work and DEI values will be embedded into your personal ethos and actions, and you’ll whole-heartedly embrace our organizational commitment to these efforts. As we grow, you’ll help to design and manage the systems and processes that will allow us to increase our output while maintaining quality and staying centered in our vision, mission and guiding principles. Your responsibilities, listed below, will run deep and range widely, and will give you the opportunity to exercise both sides of your highly active brain.
STRUCTURE + LOCATION
This is a full-time position with a flexible schedule. Our team works remotely. Candidates from all locations are welcome to apply.
RESPONSIBILITIES INCLUDE:
Hire, coach and supervise production team members
Help filter ideas and shape stories for our serialized documentary format
Lead the design and implementation of training processes for the production team
Help to ensure that our sources and our reporters/producers represent a diversity of voices, and that our stories are relevant and accessible to diverse audiences
Oversee reporting and production plans, including field reporting
Create and manage budgets
Develop production calendars, manage deadlines and keep production team on track
Coordinate production team meetings and training sessions
Assist with editing tape and scripts, including helping to assemble mixes, when needed
Occasionally work as a reporter/producer if needed
Oversee fact-checking process
Provide keen editorial guidance and train other team members to develop their own editorial smarts
Help lead collaborative efforts with other podcasts, public radio programs, and audio networks
ABOUT YOU
You have a passion for quality audio journalism and narrative documentary, and experience working behind the scenes to make it happen. Designing and building structures is exciting to you; you have a proven ability to create strong, adaptive architecture for teams and projects, helping your colleagues to achieve efficiency and excellence. You’re a thoughtful and perceptive listener, and you articulate your ideas with nuance in written, verbal, and in-person communications.
You know what makes a powerful story and you are more than capable of reporting and producing your own work, but you’ve learned that what fulfills you most is editing the work of others, and helping colleagues hone their craft. You will be able to proudly point us toward work that you’ve edited and people you’ve trained and mentored. As a supervisor of both projects and people, you have a well-honed ability to synthesize information, and an eye for detail. You’re highly organized and emotionally intelligent, with a track record of successful leadership inside an audio production team.
Like us, you are committed to building empathy through stories, and you know that this requires including a wide range of perspectives. People of color, LGBTQ+ people, people with disabilities, and members of other historically disenfranchised groups are strongly encouraged to apply.
SKILLS AND EXPERIENCE
Minimum five years of experience in audio production. Journalism experience and/or experience producing non-fiction serialized stories preferred.
Experience training and managing audio journalists at various career stages.
Excellent writing and editing skills.
Strong ability to structure compelling audio stories, both editorially and technically, and to train others to do the same.
Strong analytical, research, and investigative skills preferred.
Advanced organizational and project-management skills.
Passion for and commitment to ongoing diversity, equity, and inclusion work on both a personal and a team level.
Excellent interpersonal, communication, and team-building skills.
Ability to provide and receive feedback gracefully.
Dedication to high standards of accuracy, fairness, and inclusion.
Proven ability to lead and manage multiple projects simultaneously.
Willingness and ability to step in at any point in the production process and keep projects moving forward.
Humility and humor are a (really) big plus.
We know there are great candidates who may not feel they check every box listed here, or who have valuable skills we haven’t thought of. If that feels like you, please don’t let that stop you from applying.
Auricle Productions provides generous paid time off, a health insurance reimbursement, and other benefits to full-time employees.
Benefits
Auricle Productions provides generous paid time off, a health insurance reimbursement, and other benefits to full-time employees.
How to Apply
Think this job sounds great? Exciting! We look forward to hearing from you. But before you go any further, please listen to at least one episode of each of our three seasons. If our work doesn’t resonate with you, we’re not a match.
If it does, tell us why in your cover letter. What do you find interesting or surprising about Threshold? Why do you think it matters? What excites you about being part of our show?
Of course, we want to hear about you, too. If you’re the right person for this job, you know how to bring a character to life on the page. In this case, that character is you. Introduce yourself, and impress us with your writing skills while you’re at it.
Please send your résumé, cover letter, and links to three examples of your work to caysi [at] thresholdpodcast.org. For the work samples, tell us what role you played in the piece.
Deadline to apply: September 15, 2021