Senior Digital Producer, SEO

  • Contract

Company Description

Torstar Corporation is a progressive media organization with a long, proud history in newspapers and a passion for capitalizing on the fluid world of digital and mobile media.  Torstar’s vision for success is driven by a deep customer-centric obsession, continued journalistic excellence, advanced data-driven competency and a culture that is selfless, focused, agile, collaborative and results driven. The successful candidate will be a champion of those priorities while keeping the customer at the heart of all of the creative work that s/he will be doing.

Job Description

The Toronto Star has one vacancy in the Digital Producer classification in the Editorial Department. The assignment will be to the Digital team to specialize in optimizing Star journalism and processes for success in search.

Digital producers are members of the digital department at the Toronto Star, whose goal is to package, enhance and promote Star journalism so that it makes a meaningful impact on our community and beyond, whether our stories are read on thestar.com, our newsletters, mobile app, social media or other platforms, both existing and emerging.

The successful candidate will be collaborative with strong news judgement and an appreciation for the opportunities and challenges faced by a 24/7 news operation creating journalism for digital surfaces and screens. They will work with editors and reporters to identify and enhance Star journalism so that it performs well on search, and work to build SEO-driven content calendars and the systems required to support them.

The Senior Digital Producer, SEO reports to the Digital Editor. The digital desk operates 24/7 and evening and weekend work will be required.

Role & responsibilities

  • Work with section editors within the Toronto Star on a daily basis, surfacing the top search trends and creating story angles that meet the needs of the Star’s audience.
  • Work with external SEO consultants to create and search intention calendar for the Toronto Star’s audience. This calendar would cover several editorial sections including news, sports, business and entertainment and identify precise, recurring topics of greatest interest to the audience and identify the optimal timing to cover these topics.
  • Ensure that high-value enterprise stories are given new life through search-friendly tactics like refreshed headlines and improved production structure.
  • Create an engrained sense within the Star that search data leads to better editorial decision making as it the most broad and live signal possible of what the audience is looking to discover and values most highly.
  • Ensure that all newsroom decision makers are armed with the best tools possible to utilize this data and can independently evaluate what relative search success means for other story decisions.
  • Respond to breaking and live news as required
  • Create and contribute to an environment of growth, demonstrate enthusiasm and support colleagues in their work.
  • Uphold the core values of the Toronto Star and the Atkinson principles.

Qualifications

  • Bachelor’s degree in journalism or equivalent experience.
  • A broad knowledge of SEO best practices
  • 3 or more years of experience in newsgathering and presentation at high-traffic news websites, demonstrating the skills, knowledge, and ability described above.
  • Understanding of digital publishing best practices
  • Superb news judgement and a broad understanding of the Star’s editorial brand and priorities
  • Strong communication skills and a proven track record of working collaboratively and innovatively.
  • Passion, energy and creativity
  • You are a self-starter and self-motivated with the ability to identify and solve complex problems, quickly and independently

Additional Information

This role is represented by Unifor 87-M. 

Diversity & Inclusion
Torstar Group of Companies is an equal opportunity employer committed to diversity and inclusion. Torstar is committed to ensuring employment opportunity to qualified applicants without discrimination on the basis of race, ancestry, place of origin, colour, ethnic origin, citizenship, creed, sex, sexual orientation, gender identity, gender expression, marital status, family status or disability or any other factor protected by law.

AODA
Torstar Group of Companies is committed to providing an inclusive and barrier-free recruitment process ensuring equal access to employment opportunities for candidates, including persons with disabilities. In compliance with Accessibility for Ontarians with Disabilities Act and Ontario Human Rights Code we will endeavour to provide accommodation to persons with disabilities in the recruitment process upon request. If you are selected for an interview and you require accommodation due to a disability during the recruitment process, please notify the hiring manager upon scheduling the interview of your requirements.

COVID-19
Torstar Corporation remains committed to its employees and to providing a safe workplace. As of November 30, 2021, candidates for employment are required to be fully vaccinated against COVID-19 and successful candidates must agree to obtain any additional vaccinations or booster dose(s) that may be required. Proof of such vaccination will be required. We will make accommodation for qualifying medical or religious exemptions.

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