Deputy Editor, Audience Strategy & Newsletters

The Minnesota Star Tribune•Fridley, MN

3d•$103,500 - $125,000•Hybrid

About The Position

The Minnesota Star Tribune is seeking dynamic leaders passionate about journalism and democracy to help shape its future. The Deputy Editor, Audience Strategy & Newsletters is a critical member of the Audience Team and a strategic partner to newsroom editors. This role oversees audience team members embedded with editorial departments, ensuring audience insights, experimentation, and performance strategy are integrated into daily newsroom decision-making. Additionally, this role is the central strategic owner of the Star Tribune’s newsletter portfolio, guiding its direction, evaluation, and evolution while maintaining journalistic standards. The position requires a blend of strategy and execution, with a strong understanding of audience behavior, digital platform distribution, performance analytics, and the values of a modern newsroom. This leader will help transform individual instincts into shared frameworks, sustainable systems, and measurable impact across desks and platforms, serving as a senior thought partner to the Head of Audience Strategy.

Requirements

A bachelor’s degree in journalism, or a related field, or an equivalent combination of education and work-related experience.
A minimum of 5 years of significant experience in newsletter strategy, audience development, digital strategy, newsroom audience roles, lifecycle marketing, or related fields.
A minimum of 2 years of experience leading or managing teams.
Strong understanding of audience analytics, performance metrics, and methodology for gleaning actionable insight from data.
Experience conducting audience research to guide editorial and distribution decisions.
Experience working with email service providers (Sailthru or similar platforms preferred).
Excellent communication and collaboration skills, and the ability to build trust with editors and reporters.
A strong commitment to journalism and public service.
A commitment to audiences that represent the breadth of Minnesota’s diversity.
Must be currently legally authorized to work in the U.S. without sponsorship for employment visa status.

Nice To Haves

Experience in a subscription-based media organization.
Experience managing an email or audience product portfolio.
Experience running structured testing and experimentation programs.
Familiarity with homepage curation in a fast-paced newsroom.

Responsibilities

Lead embedded audience strategy for key coverage pillars (News & Politics, Greater MN, Business, Outdoors, Food & Culture, Sports, Strib Varsity).
Partner with desk editors to identify audience opportunities, data/research needs, performance goals, and experimentation priorities.
Develop shared audience strategy frameworks for desk priorities, performance evaluation, and growth opportunities.
Lead audience messaging strategy across owned channels (newsletters, push notifications, in-app messaging, etc.) for cohesive reader experiences.
Partner with product, data, and marketing teams to develop and automate audience journeys that deepen habit, engagement, subscription value, and reader loyalty.
Encourage thoughtful experimentation across platforms (homepage, newsletters, social media, off-platform distribution).
Help shape story presentation and distribution across platforms to maximize reach, relevance, and reader engagement.
Develop a portfolio-level newsletter strategy balancing audience growth, reader habit, subscription value, editorial priorities, and operational sustainability.
Evaluate new newsletter proposals and guide lifecycle decisions (launches, iterations, sunsets).
Lead experimentation in newsletter subject lines, format, cadence, and segmentation.
Maintain quality and consistency across newsletters in partnership with newsroom editors.
Develop strong technical fluency in the email platform to troubleshoot issues, support producers, and improve newsletter workflows.
Help translate Audience Team priorities into clear systems, workflows, and expectations.
Coach embedded Audience Editors in strategic planning, editor partnership, data interpretation, and platform decision-making.
Build consistent planning, testing, and post-publication learning practices across embedded audience roles.
Identify opportunities to improve collaboration between the Audience Team and stakeholders (desks, product, data, social, homepage, newsletters).
Model strong editorial judgment, audience-first thinking, and collaborative leadership across the newsroom.