Senior Vice President, Audience Development & Content Distribution

NPR • Columbia, WA

9d • Hybrid

About The Position

NPR is seeking an experienced, strategic, and mission-aligned executive to serve as Senior Vice President, Audience Development & Content Distribution. Reporting directly to the Chief Content Officer, the SVP bridges enterprise editorial vision with multi-platform publishing, network syndication, and station distribution strategy. The role leads how NPR journalism is delivered and experienced across NPR’s nationwide network, coordinating NPR, Member stations, and affiliate partners to scale quality, editorial integrity, and audience reach.

The SVP oversees enterprise content roadmaps and channel distribution strategies to support audience acquisition, retention, and civic impact across NPR-owned properties, third-party platforms, and member newsrooms. This is an NPR editorial role covered by the NPR Ethics Handbook, and the role’s holder is bound by its guidance.

The position is hybrid permitted and requires at least three days per week in NPR’s Washington, D.C. office. The employee must reside in Washington, D.C., Maryland, or Virginia. This is a full-time, exempt position. The anticipated U.S.-based salary range is $290,000–$350,000, plus benefits.

Requirements

• At least 15 years of progressive leadership experience in media strategy, content operations, audience development, or network distribution.
• Demonstrated expertise managing complex editorial calendars, media partner relationships, and multi-channel digital distribution, including SEO, news aggregators, newsletters, social platforms, and streaming syndication.
• Proven experience designing, scaling, and managing affiliate syndication systems, content-sharing networks, or federated member-station alliances.
• Executive-level familiarity with enterprise publishing architecture, distributed CMS stacks, media asset management systems (MAM/DAM), and workflow automation.
• Exceptional executive presence and a record of building consensus, inspiring collaboration, and aligning independent station partners and cross-functional leaders around shared strategic goals.
• Strong operational budget management experience and familiarity with network economics, membership models, or syndication structures.
• Bachelor’s degree in Journalism, Communications, Media Studies, Business Administration, or a related field, or equivalent practical work experience demonstrating equivalent executive capability.
• Strategic publishing vision that bridges editorial vision and operational execution across platforms.
• Interpersonal and negotiation skills to build trust, navigate federated governance structures, and align independent partners.
• Ability to translate quantitative audience analytics and qualitative metrics into strategic publishing decisions.
• Capacity to guide teams through digital transformation, process modernization, and evolving media landscapes.
• Commitment to public-interest journalism, editorial integrity, and the role of news in a healthy democracy.
• Must reside in Washington, D.C., Maryland, or Virginia and work from NPR’s Washington, D.C. office at least three days per week.

Nice To Haves

• Deep operational understanding of public radio, member-station governance, and federated media fundraising or licensing models.
• Direct experience evaluating and implementing ethical AI, automated distribution tools, or next-generation media delivery frameworks in distributed media environments.
• Experience in a major newsroom, public broadcasting network, or federated media alliance.

Responsibilities

• Build and manage an enterprise-wide content roadmap aligning daily news, investigative series, podcasts, newsletters, and special projects across publishing platforms.
• Oversee multi-platform distribution across NPR-owned digital properties and third-party networks, adapting to changing media consumption trends and algorithms.
• Build, maintain, and expand executive relationships with publishers, digital-native media outlets, radio and television syndicators, and nonprofit journalism networks.
• Lead cross-functional SEO, social media, and newsletter initiatives to improve discovery, retention, and measurable civic and journalistic impact.
• Design, govern, and scale the operational framework for network syndication, content sharing, joint reporting, and affiliate publishing across Member stations and affiliate newsrooms.
• Serve as the central executive partner to station managers, news directors, and affiliate leaders, establishing partner advisory cadences and service standards.
• Work with data and analytics teams to define network KPIs, content adoption metrics, and ROI frameworks, and turn audience data into strategic recommendations for editorial leadership.
• Modernize technology-enabled distribution workflows, enterprise CMS stacks, media asset management repositories, and ethical AI tools for distributed network environments.
• Oversee the content operations and distribution budget, manage strategic resource allocation, and collaborate with Legal, Product, Tech, and Revenue leadership to support brand safety and organizational alignment.

Benefits

• Comprehensive benefits for employees and dependents.
• Access to health and wellness benefits, paid time off, and financial well-being benefits.
• Medical, dental, vision, life and accidental death and dismemberment, long-term disability, and short-term disability plan options.
• Voluntary retirement savings for eligible NPR employees.

What This Job Offers

• Job Type: Full-time
• Career Level: Executive