Associate Director, Audience Development

Overview

Our Audience Development team operationalizes Consumer Reports’ mission to create a safer, fairer, and more transparent marketplace, ensuring our trusted, independent guidance is highly visible wherever people make decisions—across traditional search, answer engines, newsletters, CR’s app, alerts, and social and emerging platforms. In a time of information overload, misinformation, and peak distrust, this is more important than ever.

How You'll Make An Impact

• Drive CR’s audience strategy, evolving the integration of our discoverability strategy across all channels and platforms and in collaboration with all relevant divisions,
• Oversee the Audience Development team, establishing technical, digital, and editorial best practices for excellence in both search results, answer engines, and nascent technologies,
• Develop and maintain growth and optimization strategies across owned and distributed surfaces (web, app, Apple News, YouTube, Reddit, TikTok, Newsletters, etc.) in close collaboration with cross-functional teams, namely Marketing and Content,
• Advise the Executive Managing Editor on defining and evolving audience KPI frameworks and roadmaps to measure short-term and long-term success,
• Translate data into action: Help inform product roadmaps and editorial planning with specific and directional insights,
• Establish cross-functional partnerships with Content, Product, Marketing, Analytics, Testing, Leadership, and other relevant teams to align on and elevate distribution, engagement, and optimization,
• Advocate for brand visibility in AI ecosystems, ensuring attribution and authority signaling across generative engines,
• Build, manage, and mentor an evolving audience team, comprising both full-time staff and project-based freelancers

About You

• You have the experience: 10 years in audience strategy and insights, content strategy, growth strategy for a digital publisher, tech nonprofit, or mission-driven brand.
• You have managed teams in highly matrixed environments: 6+ years managing and mentoring teams, as well as cross-functional initiatives.
• You have experience in a non-profit environment.
• You are proficient with multiple search analytics tools and platforms.
• You have proven success leading or partnering on newsletter programs and platform packaging strategies.
• You have excellent communication skills, bridging editorial with digital, marketing and analytical teams around shared audience goals.
• You have led nascent AI optimization across digital and editorial teams in publishing environments.
• You have proven change management experience with cross-functional teams around audience development KPIs.