Search & Optimization Editor – $59,400 – $140,300 a year

Gannett Co., Inc. (NYSE: GCI) is a diversified media company with expansive reach at the national and local level dedicated to empowering and enriching communities. We seek to inspire, inform, and connect audiences as a scalable, growth focused media and digital marketing solutions company. We endeavor to deliver essential content, marketing solutions, and experiences for curated audiences, advertisers, consumers, and stakeholders by leveraging our diverse teams and suite of products to enrich the local communities and businesses we serve. Our current portfolio of trusted media brands includes the USA TODAY NETWORK, comprised of the national publication, USA TODAY, and local media organizations in the United States, and Newsquest, a wholly-owned subsidiary operating in the United Kingdom. Our digital marketing solutions brand, LocaliQ, uses innovation and software to enable small and medium-sized businesses to grow, and USA TODAY NETWORK Ventures, our events division, creates impactful consumer engagements, promotions, and races. Gannett open roles are featured on various external job boards. When applying to a position at Gannett, you should be completing an application on Gannett Careers via Dayforce. Job postings directing you to complete an application on other external sites may not be valid. To connect with us, visit www.gannett.com

Join USA TODAY’s valued Search and Optimization Team, whose advice on SEO strategy is in high daily demand by reporters and editors in a newsroom that serves audiences across the country.

We are looking for a full-time editor with deep SEO strategy and optimization experience, specifically in live coverage of breaking news and tentpole events, who is eager to work with a newsroom that covers everything from celebrities to politics to the Olympics and more.

This editor will help put USA TODAY in front of audiences for live coverage of major events by proposing an SEO strategy for live coverage beforehand with editors and reporters, and then driving the conversation in real-time during the event about trending topics, key words and questions the audience is asking.

The ideal candidate will be adept at finding trending topics and keywords, polishing headlines and counseling the newsroom on best practices for search visibility. They will be immersed in the day-to-day operations and will help USA TODAY’s content become discoverable through organic search, GoogleNews, Google Discover and paid search.

We are looking for someone who has unlimited curiosity, enjoys collaboration and finds it fun to come up with new strategies to grow audience for our content. They will help newsroom editors prepare for major events by producing keyword research ahead of time and guiding real-time choices while the event is going on.

The editor will also monitor SERP and help the newsroom optimize content on a daily basis. Night and weekend hours are required.

Responsibilities:

• Collaborate with editors and reporters to fully optimize the metadata and presentation of content for visibility on search.

• Understand and disseminate best practices to the newsroom on the SEO factors most vital to live coverage of breaking news and tentpole events.

• Monitor SERP daily and help the newsroom optimize content to help USA TODAY maintain a competitive edge in search.

• Ensure newsroom is maintaining keyword diversity with published content.

• Provide group and one-on-one trainings to newsroom staff.

• Proficiently use SEO tools to track keywords over time and provide actionable insights to content team.

• Collaborate with other SEO champions on ever-changing best practices and how to best distribute that information to the newsroom as a whole

• Coordinate with analytics team to set up appropriate reports to accurately track progress of certain keywords or topics.

Requirements:

• Bachelor’s degree in communications, Journalism, marketing or related field or equivalent combination of education and experience.

• Experience working in newsroom setting on optimization of content, content planning workflow and SEO strategies.

• Ability to think and act tactically and strategically.

• Proficiency in AP style and grammar.

• Strong collaboration and communication skills.

• A self-starter who is willing to brainstorm and execute on newsroom strategies.

• A strong willingness to try new things and learn from the results.

• Mastery of SEO and how people discover content on different search platforms, including voice.

• Experience with News Dashboard, Conductor Searchlight or other SEO tools is a plus.

• Experience with Google Ads: Search (Google AdWords) or other search marketing tools is a plus.

We are eager to learn more about you and how you fit this role. When you apply, don’t limit your upload to a resume; show us what you’ve done. To do so, put together a single document file that includes the following, in this order:

Links to 3-6 online samples of your work. Show us what you’ve produced or had a hand in that best reflects what you can do in your desired role.

Your resume – one to two pages.

A cover letter that outlines how you would approach the job.