Business Development Residency

Lookout Santa Cruz has begun the local news reboot that communities around this country need now more than ever. Founded by news analyst Ken Doctor in November 2020, its innovation is being watched around the country — both in its mobile-first local news product and service and in its borrowed-and-scaled-appropriately business model from the New York Times.

The Business Development Resident would join Lookout’s Community and Commerce team as we break new ground in mission-directed, community-centered partnership development. Our team of three strategizes and deploys our earned revenue initiatives across these key lines:

• Membership development and retention, including sophisticated analytics work and member-centered events, in alignment with our local journalism.
• Local business marketing partnership and advertising relationship development, offering dynamic promoted content storytelling and display positions that increase the brand awareness for local companies.
• Student Engagement activities at both UCSC and Cabrillo College, actively bringing students into the news of the day by promoting the free membership available to them.
• Community Engagement and outreach work with our non-profit civic partners, such as marketing and attending our partner’s key events.

Primary Duties and Responsibilities:

Support Lookout’s Community & Commerce team through outreach, strategy development, administrative tasks, and production with projects that could include:

• Driving community and business engagement, matching work to metrics and goals.
• Driving reader awareness and usage of Lookout, by helping innovate new and creative ways of showcasing the work of our correspondents and editors utilizing photos, videos and other visual mediums.
• Connecting with the community and students to share the work of Lookout through an engaging social media outreach strategy.
• Tracking and analyzing Lookout’s own KPIs, and those of peer companies, which inform Lookout business decisions and campaigns.
• Participating in web management and updating Lookout’s robust online platform.
• Supporting production and communication around Lookout events.

Knowledge and skills needed to fulfill job requirements:

We’re looking for a smart, savvy, digitally minded intern to help us keep imagining, building and iterating the local news business models that fund a local news revival free of hedge funds.

• Tech-savvy. We need to be reaching the audience of now and the future, and be sharply focused on that mission — particularly the mobile experience.
• Motivated. You have identified the things that drive you — and sometimes wake you up in the middle of the night — and you are planning to go places in this burgeoning new media landscape.
• Detail-oriented. Assignments will range from digital platform management, event and analytics management and business development.
• Creative. In this role you will need to innovate and test new ideas to drive results.

Bonus points for…

• Experience with analytics tools and key metrics/KPIs
• Expertise and ideas in TikTok, Instagram and Clubhouse best practices
• Knowledge of web development and production
• Experience in any kind of sales role

Things to Note:

• Approximate schedule: Mon-Fri, flexible hours within 9am – 5pm
• Approximate hours/wk: 15 hours per week
• Residency length: September 2022 – June 2023 *with options to start over the summer 2022
• Remote or In person: Most hours completed in person, with some hours remote

How to Apply:

Email a short cover letter and resume to internships@lookoutlocal.com

CC: jamie@lookoutlocal.com, ashley@lookoutlocal.com, ken@lookoutlocal.com