The Assembly is a digital magazine bringing backroom conversations to North Carolina’s front page. We focus on enterprise stories, revelatory scoops, and authoritative looks at under-covered topics, people, and places. Our stories surprise, inform, and leave readers with a better understanding of the state.
Even if the current openings aren’t a good fit, we love to hear from reporters who are interested in working with us. Please send us a note with your resume and clips, and we’ll stay in touch for future hiring. Questions and applications should be sent to jobs@theassemblync.com.
Higher Ed Reporter
The Assembly is hiring a full-time reporter to cover higher education in North Carolina.
The Assembly is a digital magazine bringing backroom conversations to North Carolina’s front page. We focus on enterprise stories, revelatory scoops, and authoritative looks at undercovered topics, people, and places. Our stories surprise, inform, and leave readers with a better understanding of the state.
Higher ed is one of our three core focus areas, and we are looking to add a curious, ambitious reporter to the team. This reporter will be responsible for producing feature stories as well as co-writing a weekly newsletter of interest to folks in the higher ed world.
Qualifications
This reporter must:
- Have demonstrated knowledge and experience covering higher education
- Have an interest in bringing that experience to cover North Carolina’s colleges and universities
- Come with strong story ideas on the beat, both noteworthy scoops and definitive in-depth features
- Have a demonstrated ability to build, maintain, and leverage source networks
- Be able to work both independently and collaboratively
- Write with a clear, engaging voice that connects with our readers
Additional qualifications:
- Preferred experience: 5+ years
- A record of publishing stories with impact
- Experience–or at least comfort–with producing a newsletter
- Familiarity with The Assembly’s interests and style
Salary and Benefits
Starting salary is $70,000 but negotiable based on experience. We’ll ask you to be upfront during the interview process with your needs and we’ll do the same about our abilities.
We offer a competitive benefits package, including health care, parental leave, life insurance, and 401k.
How To Apply
Applications are straightforward: answer four questions and send us a resume.
- Talk about your interest and experience on the higher ed beat, and what you think the Assembly should be covering.
- What do you believe makes a good story great? Give us an example of a great story and explain why.
- We aim for reporting that reveals new information and explains an issue’s broad context. Describe an experience in your career where you helped deliver both sides of that equation.
- Describe a difficult reporting challenge you have faced, and how you overcame it.
Send answers and a resume to info@theassemblync.com.
We’ll start reviewing applications on May 15 and expect to make hiring decisions in June.
Chief Operating Officer
The Assembly seeks a Chief Operating Officer to lead business strategy, revenue, and internal operations for the organization. The individual will report to and is a close day-to-day partner to The Assembly’s CEO. An ideal COO will be an exceptional manager of executive-level roles who can keep focus on growing recurring revenue and build an internal culture that lets The Assembly grow from a ~20 FTE start-up to a 50+ FTE statewide network.
The COO will oversee all non-editorial areas of work at The Assembly and its regional assets including a combined team of 9 FTEs and external contractors in accounting, legal, marketing, and branding. The full-time team will grow significantly over the next two years. The COO will also partner and collaborate with key editorial leaders, and board members.
The COO must be an efficient and organized leader who is comfortable with change and evolution; who can bring structure and accountability while staying flexible and empathetic. The role is an opportunity to help lead a growing statewide news network and build a new model for providing unusually deep and compelling statewide journalism.
Responsibilities:
The role’s responsibilities include:
Revenue and Product Management (45%)
- Lead or provide management oversight of all revenue sources including subscriptions, advertising, grants, and partner revenue.
Subscriptions
- Oversee and manage VP for audience and growth, monitoring traffic and subscriber goals, and ensuring business plan assumptions and strategies are accurate.
- Manage coordination between editorial and audience teams to ensure growth needs are met while protecting editorial needs.
- Evaluate team’s technology needs and provide ultimate approval on any vendor changes.
- Manage new product strategy, design, and launch
Advertising
- Develop and refine The Assembly’s network-wide advertising sales strategy, including analyzing and presenting audience insights, evaluating pricing and prospecting strategies, and overseeing the creation of special products.
- Personally lead and close advertising sales for top-tier prospects and major clients, with direct support from the CEO.
- Manage sales teams across the statewide team and regional assets and evaluate the need for additional junior and senior level sales roles.
Grants
- Work with CEO and VP for Audience and Growth to develop a target list for foundation and major donor support, and assist with grant applications, in-person pitches, and reporting.
Partners
- In coordination with the Managing Editor, lead interaction and negotiation with all revenue-producing external partners, including editorial partners, who license or seek to license Assembly content or brand.
Strategic Planning (20%)
- In partnership with the CEO and other organizational leaders, lead annual budget planning and strategic planning.
- Partner with the CEO to lead The Assembly’s senior leadership team, including bi-weekly agenda, workflow, reporting on metrics and performance, and accountability to timelines.
- Own and coordinate the creation and maintenance of the company’s business plan.
- Coordinate new product and initiative launches, in collaboration with the project lead from business or editorial.
Financial Management and Analysis (20%)
- Oversee outside accounting and audit firms as they keep The Assembly’s books in order.
- Conduct monthly financial reviews, with the help of the outside firm, to evaluate financial performance relative to budget – and properly communicate progress across the organization.
- Liaison with The Assembly’s Board of Directors on a monthly basis via executive committee and a quarterly basis to the full board, to keep them apprised of progress.
- Alongside the CEO and senior leadership, including the Board, inform strategic reviews by analyzing the impacts of budget changes and varying revenue performance.
Personnel Management and HR (15%)
- Oversee annual personnel reviews for senior management and create unified review structure for all managers to use during budget reviews and strategic updates.
- Identify personnel issues that require formal mitigation and engage with an outside HR contractor to intervene and create a plan for resolution.
- Ensure managers create a sufficient onboarding plan for all new hires, and that new workflows and processes are properly created and documented.
- Manage The Assembly’s operations director, and ensure that administrative functions including compliance, contracts and payroll, and office management, are carried out smoothly.
This role will have at least four direct reports: VP of Audience & Growth, two Senior Sales Roles, and an operations director. A future CFO hire would also report to this role. The full team reporting into the COO will be around 9 at the onset with plans to double in size over the next two years.
Compensation
We’re looking for a highly motivated professional ready for a core leadership role at a fast-growing, ambitious organization. Starting salary is $120,000, but negotiable based on experience. We’ll ask you to be upfront during the interview process with your needs and we’ll do the same about our abilities. Compensation also includes a significant stock option stake, as well as 20 days paid time off, 12 weeks parental leave, and a strong benefits package.
This position requires relocation to North Carolina and willingness to work periodically in our Durham office.
How To Apply
Initial applications are straightforward: answer four questions and send us a resume.
- Why do you want to join a three-year-old start-up in the media space?
- For The Assembly, describe either a model to emulate, or a cautionary tale to avoid, and tell us what we should learn from it.
- Tell us about what you look for in a team culture and the best example you’ve seen of a leader or institution trying to build that culture.
- What aspects of this position’s job description are most within your interest and experience and why?
Send answers and a resume to info@theassemblync.com. We’ll start reviewing applications on a rolling basis, and expect to begin interviews in July.
About The Assembly
Launched in February 2021, we are currently a team of 13 full-time employees with ambitious growth plans over the next few years.
We’re a subscriber-supported, for-profit outlet focused on great magazine-style journalism at the state-level. We partner with other outlets in the state and nationally, and our stories are regularly cited in outlets such as Politico, The Washington Post, Sunday Long Read, The Chronicle of Higher Education, and Axios.
We aim to be a reflection of the state, with reporters from – and based in – diverse communities across North Carolina. We also aim to bring national talent to North Carolina that can help us improve the journalism ecosystem in a growing and important state.
We want a newsroom that reflects a diversity of talent and perspectives. We encourage members of traditionally underrepresented communities to apply, including women, people of color, LGBTQ+ people, people who were formerly incarcerated, veterans, and people with disabilities.