The Position
The Director of Product leads the strategy, development and day-to-day management of Fort Worth Report’s digital products — our website, email management platform, regional expansion products exclusive of editorial, our obituary scraper, events calendar, and future products in support of our Vision 2030 goals.
This position is instrumental in ensuring our products are reliable, easy to use and built to serve our audience’s evolving needs. The director will work with our leadership team to develop a strategic vision for product growth in support of broader business and journalistic goals, and will partner closely with our Director of Audience, managing editor, publisher/CEO and general manager/CRO to ensure our products serve both our readers and our newsroom.
The director of product is part of our leadership team and, as such, requires positivity and a can-do attitude and a solution-focused approach for our internal and external customers.
Key Responsibilities
Product tasks
- Improve and manage existing products, including our website, email newsletter products, zone publications exclusive of editorial, obituary scraper, mobile app and events calendar. May include working with developers and designers on a contract basis.
- Manage the launch of new products in support of Vision 2030 goals.
- Own the product roadmap, prioritizing enhancements and new features based on audience needs, business goals and staff feedback.
- Serve as the primary point of contact with our CMS vendor (Newspack) and other technology vendors; join vendor calls to evaluate new features and troubleshoot issues.
- Manage a product bug-tracking and enhancement-request process, prioritizing fixes and improvements and communicating status to staff.
- Develop and maintain analytics dashboards for our digital products, and report on product performance and progress to leadership.
- Oversee the technical health of the website — including performance, accessibility and mobile experience — in coordination with contractors and the audience team on technical SEO.
- Evaluate and recommend new tools and platforms, such as texting, video and audio, to support FWR’s product strategy.
- Manage product-related budgets and vendor contracts, to include but not limited to: Wordpress, BlueLena, Mediagraph, Documenters, AP Newsroom.
Audience tasks
- Analyze and work to fill information needs of FWR’s current and future (target) audiences, through our main products — our website, email newsletters, social media and our mobile app — and via emerging platforms, including Reddit, Nextdoor and SMS texting.
- Work with the management team to drive aggressive growth in the readership and lead efforts to grow our reader outreach to attract new audiences and optimize reader engagement.
- Be always on the lookout and knowledgeable about new ways to reach and serve our audience.
- Work closely with the membership director and manager to move readers down the audience funnel to becoming loyal members.
- Work closely with newsroom leadership and the newsletter editor to optimize newsletter product design and editorial workflows.
- Use and manage paid acquisition tactics such as social media ads and Google ads. Experience with Google News Showcase is a plus.
- Engage FWR’s audiences through surveys and other means to inform and expand news content and audience strategy.
- Make well-informed, metric-driven decisions and recommendations; work with the managing editor to monitor and analyze data from Google Analytics, Facebook Insights, and Parse.ly, among others, to understand user behavior and help formulate new content and audience development strategies.
- Report progress, or lack thereof, and discuss strategic adjustments to any related weekly, monthly or quarterly goals. Review audience data and subscriber data during the morning news meeting and as needed.
- Provide monthly audience reports to our board of directors and to our staff.
- Focus on growing our audience through social media and search engine optimization initiatives.
- Review the site for technical SEO optimization opportunities.
- Monitor tools such as Google Search Console for SEO issues.
- Lead trainings and develop how-to guides for newsroom staff on SEO best practices.
Qualifications/Qualities
- Bachelor’s degree or equivalent experience and training.
- At least 5 years experience in digital product management or related fields. Familiarity with newsrooms is a plus.
- Understanding of the critical role that public service journalism plays in our democracy.
- Proven people management skills and a track record of collaboration across teams and with outside organizations.
- Understanding of SCRUM, Agile or other product management frameworks.
- Experience with Asana and Claude Code, Chat GPT and/or other AI tools is a plus.
- Experience developing and implementing business plans and Key Performance Indicator dashboards for digital products, and a track record of successful results. Nonprofit experience helpful.
- Experience managing content management systems, such as WordPress, and email service providers; familiarity with Newspack and Active Campaign a plus.
- Understanding of UX/UI principles and website performance and accessibility standards.
- Experience working with software vendors, developers and technical teams to scope and prioritize product improvements.
- Experience using digital analytics platforms, such as Google Analytics and Parse.ly, to inform product decisions.
- Expertise using spreadsheets, word processing, presentation software, graphic design, virtual meeting software, etc.
- You are committed to diversity and inclusion, and its value in the workplace. Spanish language proficiency is a plus.
- Ability to multitask and manage competing deadlines across multiple products.
- Strong organizational, project management and communication skills.
- Self-starting, proactive attitude.
This is a full-time, exempt position. Travel and some nights/weekends will be required. We offer a competitive salary plus health insurance (medical, dental, vision), generous holiday, sick and vacation leave, and flexible work hours.
There are great candidates who might not check all these boxes or who hold important skills we haven’t listed. Don’t hesitate to apply and tell us about yourself. FWR is an equal opportunity employer and is committed to hiring employees from diverse backgrounds. People of color, women, LGBTQ+, and differently-abled people are strongly encouraged to apply.
As a start-up, we’re often called to wear many hats and jump in to help each other when the situation calls for it. We’re committed to maintaining a healthy work-life balance and providing a place for staff to feel supported in their professional growth and achieve ambitious goals.
Application details: All applications should include a cover letter and resume to
- mike@fortworthreport.org; please include “Director of Product” in the email subject line.
