Director, Audience Strategy

Key Responsibilities

• Own the audience strategy. Set the plan for growing a loyal, engaged audience across our site, app, newsletters, social, video and events. Turn company goals into clear audience targets, and report monthly to leadership on what’s working and what’s changing.
• Own BlueConic end to end. BlueConic is our audience platform, and you’ll run it. You’ll set the use-case roadmap, take it from launch (registration wall, app install prompts, event registration) into its next phase (gamification, re-engagement, loyalty rewards), and keep one clean, unified profile for every fan across our site, app, beehiiv and event platforms.
• Build the programs that capture and keep our audience: topic-based newsletter sign-ups, registration prompts, referral programs, short profile questions asked at the right moment, and first-week onboarding journeys that turn one sign-up into a habit.
• Personalize the audience experience. Use BlueConic to power content recommendations, multi-step messaging journeys and personalized push notifications. Bring each fan’s event history onto their profile so we can reward loyal attendees and re-engage people who registered but didn’t show.
• Lead registration, paywall and subscription strategy. Make the key calls on the registration wall, working with Editorial and Ad Sales on the trade-offs. Build the registration base, pricing tests and onboarding for our late-2027 subscription product, and be ready to lead the paywall strategy at launch.
• Drive revenue through the audience. Build first-party audience segments that Sales can package and sell to advertisers. Grow high-quality ad inventory through stronger engagement, and run ticket sales journeys and offer tests for events and merch.
• Test, measure and stay compliant. Run A/B tests on registration, paywall and on-site placements, keep always-on reporting on registration and conversion, and scale what works. Own consent and data-use rules across every program, and make sure any fan who asks to be removed is taken out of all of them.
• Be the go-to audience partner. Work with content and editorial teams so audience insight shapes content and newsletters early. Work with Growth to capture and keep the people they bring in, and with Product on the app, site and Factle.

Skills, Knowledge & Expertise

• 8+ years in digital media, with at least 5 in audience strategy, audience development or CRM, ideally at a company with multiple revenue streams
• A proven record of deepening engagement, retention and loyalty on owned platforms
• A track record of building audience data, measurement and insight tools that inform strategy
• Experience leading teams across email and CRM, audience analytics and community
• Strong command of audience segmentation, lifecycle marketing and the registration-to-subscription funnel
• Experience working across Product, Growth and Editorial to execute audience strategy
• Excellent communication and stakeholder management, with the ability to influence senior leaders
• Strong news and sports judgment, and an appreciation for what delights and engages fans beyond the daily news agenda
• Hands-on experience leading a CDP or audience platform (BlueConic preferred), including segmentation, journeys and first-party data activation, ideally connected to an identity provider (LoginRadius), email platform (beehiiv), event platform (Splash) and consent platform (Didomi)
• Deep expertise in email, lifecycle and owned-platform engagement, and in monetizing loyal digital audiences
• Strong executive presence, and the ability to set direction and operate independently with limited oversight
• Experience building first-party ad products or audience-based targeting that advertisers buy
  • Experience with registration, subscription, pricing or offer testing; launching a subscription product is a strong plusZAwqs21q`

Perks & Benefits

• Generous PTO policy to use as you please, plus sick time and company holidays
• Employer-sponsored health benefits, including medical, dental, and vision
• An annual professional development stipend and endless development opportunities at a growing startup
• Plan for your future with our 401(k) plan, complemented by a 3% company match. We believe in supporting your long-term financial goals
• Thrive in a dynamic environment with endless development opportunities at our growing startup