Audience Data Strategist

The Associated Press is an independent global news organization dedicated to factual reporting. Founded in 1846, AP today remains the most trusted source of fast, accurate, unbiased news in all formats and the essential provider of the technology and services vital to the news business. More than half the world's population sees AP journalism every day.

As an Audience Data Strategist, you'll be the bridge between data and decision-making across our digital publishing platforms. You'll uncover patterns in how millions of users discover, consume, and engage with AP journalism and then translate those insights into strategies that inform editorial priorities, product development, and revenue optimization. This role requires someone who can speak both the language of data and the language of newsrooms, comfortable presenting findings to both engineering teams and editorial leadership.

What You'll Do

Uncover Audience Insights & Content Trends

• Mine large datasets using Google Analytics 4, Looker Enterprise, and Hex.Tech to then identify patterns in audience behavior, content performance, and engagement trends across our publishing platforms
• Discover opportunities in user journeys, content placement, and engagement funnels that drive strategic recommendations for homepage optimization, recirculation strategies, and content distribution
• Analyze how different audience segments interact with our journalism and identify opportunities to deepen engagement and build loyalty

Translate Data Into Strategic Recommendations

• Transform complex audience data into compelling narratives that inform editorial strategy, product roadmaps, and monetization decisions
• Build relationships with editorial teams to understand their questions and translate them into data-driven insights about what content resonates, when, and with whom
• Partner with product managers and engineers to identify data patterns that reveal opportunities for platform improvements and new features

Create Insights Through Advanced Analytics Tools

• Use SQL, Python, and R to query large datasets, identify trends, and build repeatable analyses that surface actionable insights about content performance and audience behavior
• Design and build dashboards in Looker Enterprise and Hex.Tech that make complex audience patterns accessible to non-technical stakeholders
• Implement tracking strategies in Google Analytics 4 and Google Tag Manager to ensure we're capturing the right data to answer critical business questions

Drive Revenue & Engagement Optimization

• Uncover patterns in highly engaged users and design strategies to grow this valuable audience segment
• Evaluate A/B tests and product experiments to determine impact on engagement, retention, and revenue metrics

Partner Across the Organization

• Build trusted relationships with editorial leaders, helping them understand audience trends and content performance patterns
• Collaborate with technical teams (data engineering, product development) to ensure data infrastructure supports strategic decision-making
• Communicate findings to diverse stakeholders; from reporters asking about story performance to executives evaluating strategic priorities

What You Bring

Publishing & Audience Analytics Background

• 3+ years professional experience working with content analytics, audience insights, or digital publishing platforms
• Deep experience with Google Analytics 4 in an enterprise publishing environment; you understand pageviews, sessions, engagement metrics, and user journeys in the context of editorial content
• Proven track record of uncovering actionable insights from large datasets related to content performance, audience behavior, or user engagement

Analytics Tools & Platforms

• Hands-on experience with Looker Enterprise for building dashboards and exploring data
• Familiarity with Hex.Tech or similar collaborative analytics platforms for reproducible analysis
• Practical experience using SQL to query datasets and Python to analyze patterns and trends (you don't need to be a software engineer, but you should be comfortable writing queries and scripts to answer questions)
• Experience implementing and managing Google Tag Manager (GTM) and Google Analytics 4 (GA4), including custom-event tracking

Strategic Thinking & Communication

• Ability to identify patterns and trends in data that others might miss, then articulate why they matter
• Comfort translating technical findings into strategic recommendations for non-technical audiences; you can explain user behavior patterns to editorial teams and technical requirements to data engineers
• Track record of building relationships across diverse teams: working with both highly technical stakeholders (data engineers, developers) and creative/strategic leaders (editors, product managers, executives)

Publishing Domain Knowledge

• Understanding of how audiences discover and consume news content across platforms (web, mobile web, apps)
• Familiarity with content management systems, homepage modules, recirculation strategies, and the metrics that matter in digital publishing
• Interest in questions like: What makes content engaging? How do users navigate between stories? What drives return visits and loyalty?

Personal Attributes

• Curiosity about audience behavior and a passion for understanding why users make the choices they do
• Collaborative approach-you see your role as enabling others to make better decisions, not gatekeeping data
• Comfort with ambiguity and the ability to define your own analyses when questions are open-ended
• Adaptability to propose new approaches, test them, and iterate based on results

Nice to Have

• Experience with donation, subscription, or reader revenue analytics in publishing
• Background working with BigQuery or other large-scale data warehousing platforms
• Familiarity with content recommendation systems or personalization strategies
• Experience with A/B testing platforms and experimental design

Education

Bachelor's Degree in a relevant field (Communications, Journalism, Statistics, Data Science, Marketing) or equivalent experience in digital publishing analytics

Hybrid

We are a hybrid environment on-site three days a week.

Salary & Benefits:

The anticipated salary range for this position is $103,000 - 128,000 , based on a candidate's skills, qualifications and location. The Associated Press offers comprehensive benefits, which include:

• Competitive medical, dental and vision coverage
• Retirement benefits
• Company paid life insurance
• Paid vacation and sick days
• Paid parental leave for any new parent
• Mental well-being resources

AP seeks to build an inclusive organization grounded in respect for differences. We support all aspects of diversity and provide equal employment opportunities to all employees and applicants without regard to race, color, religion, sex, marital status, national origin, age, sexual orientation, gender identity, disability, status as a veteran, or other characteristic protected by law.