The Tulsa Local News Initiative aims to ensure all Tulsans have access to the local news and information they need. This means making its journalism available across formats and platforms, to maximize its reach and impact. The multimedia and social producer is responsible for working with newsroom leadership to develop and execute an impactful platform strategy that will engage our target audiences—particularly those who may struggle with or be less interested in long-form text.

The multimedia producer will manage the TLNI’s social accounts to start, and work with support from newsroom leaders and the American Journalism Project to develop a strategy to grow and engage our target audiences, supplying the information they’re looking for directly on platforms rather than only driving them to websites. They will join editorial meetings to help reporters and editors brainstorm multimedia versions of their stories, and develop vertical videos, slide shows, podcasts and other multimedia content.

The multimedia producer will have an opportunity to be creative and draw from best practices in social media growth and engagement, experimenting with and exploring new ways to make our audiences feel closer to the communities they live in, and to our newsgathering. Ideally, the strategy will make our audiences feel that our newsroom is their newsroom, and that we are in an ongoing two-way conversation.

The Tulsa Local News Initiative is a yet-to-be named startup nonprofit organization that has raised nearly $14 million so far in service of a vision to give everyone in Tulsa the local news they need. The newsroom will produce high-quality accountability journalism while working directly with residents to produce and distribute community reporting, employing an innovative model for local journalism that is directly responsive to local information needs. In addition to a team of editors and beat reporters, the Tulsa newsroom will have best-in-class community engagement expertise, multimedia production, dedicated capacity for service journalism and research, and Tulsa Documenters. 

At TLNI, we value learning, curiosity and diverse perspectives. We are dedicated to equitable hiring and follow best practices to create an inclusive hiring process. 

• Work with audience director to conduct a competitive analysis of popular social media accounts in our market, as well as other locally focused creators in and around Tulsa
• With audience director, develop the social media strategy for the TLNI based on the needs and habits of our target audiences, and including interesting formats that are popular on the platforms where we’re active
• Track the evolution of content formats and other growth trends on platforms so we can most effectively reach our target audiences where they prefer to be reached, and increase the impact of our reporting; develop and socialize best practices around tagging, etc.
• Attend editorial meetings to brainstorm ways to enhance reporting and distribution by adding multimedia elements, and take the lead in getting reporters excited and engaged with the multimedia production process
• Set optimal publishing cadences for our social media accounts and develop a calendar that includes pre-planned evergreen content, recirculated content, and the ability to mix in timely breaking news when necessary
• Work with editorial leadership to ensure we have representation at local community events that are important to residents, and coordinate video capture at those events for social media accounts
• Find ways to feature our student journalists and Tulsa Documenters as well as reporters on social media accounts whenever possible
• Participate in conceptualization and execution of audio strategy

• Demonstrated commitment to local, public service journalism with a track record of producing and/or leading impactful reporting
• Experience creating social media content that attracts an audience, or managing social media accounts for a news outlet or nonprofit.
• Entrepreneurial spirit — you can thrive in a startup environment where you are expected to learn as you go, think outside the box and build things from scratch
• Stellar news judgment, editorial skills, and editing and copy editing skills
• Strong communication and writing skills
• Ability to work under deadline and prioritize work
• Adept at problem solving, detail-oriented with excellent organizational skills
• Experience with and/or strong understanding of building digital audiences
• Ability to work evenings as needed
• Interpersonal/communications skills - willing to negotiate and talk through issues in an honest and clear manner
• Ability to interact effectively with a diverse group of individuals internal and external to the newsroom
• Team player – like to help other and are a supportive colleague

Salary is competitive and commensurate with experience. The salary range for this role is $50,000-60,000 with a generous benefits package.