Your New Role...
The Audience Editor is the embedded, desk-specific partner to Audience Strategy & Insights, translating audience signals into clear editorial choices. You will supply the desk with essential performance learnings; shape framing, formats, and distribution to meet audience demand; and collaborate across Search, Social, Home, Newsletters, and Product to maximize reach, habit, and engagement (including among subscribers).
This role sits at the intersection of editorial judgment and evidence-collaborative, rigorous in approach, and focused on measurable outcomes. You will work closely within our Audience Strategy & Insights operating model and in partnership with DART (Data, Analytics, Research & Testing) to turn insights into action and build repeatable practices the desk can rely on.
Your Role Accountabilities...
Performance Insights & Editorial Guidance
- Deliver concise, actionable daily/weekly/monthly insights that guide coverage decisions and follow-ups.
- Suggest stories, angles, and formats grounded in search intent, off-platform behavior, competitive patterns, and audience demand.
- Interpret quantitative and qualitative signals to shape framing and presentation on platform (site/app, home, article packaging, recirculation) and off platform (search, social, alerts, newsletters).
Cross-Platform Strategy & Collaboration
- Partner with Product and platform teams (Search, Social, Home, Newsletters) to identify opportunities in modules, templates, topic hubs, and alerting.
- Drive reach, engagement, and habit by aligning desk plans to audience goals and capturing learnings in structured retros and playbooks.
- Coordinate packaging and distribution across Off-Platform, Distribution, Community, Programming, and Newsletter teams.
Desk Support & Operational Cadence
- Contribute to daily, weekly, and monthly audience updates, synthesizing insights into desk and section reviews.
- Evaluate the desk's presence and strategy across platforms; identify growth opportunities in formats and account strategy.
- Coach the desk on best practices for social, search, and packaging; lead quick tests and document learnings.
- Optimize for discoverability via trend identification, audience demand research, evergreen refinement, and intent matching-partnering with Search on best practices.
- Uphold CNN's journalistic mission by using data to inform editorial decisions.
Qualifications & Experience... - 3+ years in digital journalism, audience or content strategy, or analytics.
- Strong ability to spot coverage, framing, and format opportunities that drive reach and engagement.
- Skilled at interpreting data and partnering with analytics to shape on- and off-platform presentation.
- Experience working with Search, Social, Home, Community, Notifications, and Newsletter teams.
- Clear, action-oriented communicator who contributes regularly to audience performance updates.
- Ability to write and coach platform-native social copy.
- Committed to journalistic independence and mission-aligned decisions.
- Fluent in search trends, intent shifts, and misinformation dynamics.
- Deep social platform expertise with strong tone and brand stewardship.
- Strong writing/editing instincts for headlines, display, and framing.
- Comfortable with testing, iteration, and directional reads.
- Skilled at bridging editorial, product, analytics, design, and research.
- Strong understanding of competitive landscape and attention patterns.
