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Director of Media Relations, Promotion and Publicity

Employer
University of Southern California Rossier School of Education
Location
California, United States
Salary
Salary Not specified
Date posted
Oct 4, 2021

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Position Type
Faculty Positions, Communications, Other Communications
Employment Level
Administrative
Employment Type
Full Time

 The University of Southern California Rossier School of Education seeks an experienced media relations and promotion/publicity professional to help our Communications team raise Rossier’s public profile and promote its work through our expanding mediums and channels. Reporting to the Executive Director of Communications, the Director publicizes Rossier’s news and achievements, people, organizations including our ten research centers, and strategic initiatives to national, regional and local print and electronic media; in Rossier’s social media channels; through a monthly e-newsletter; and through promotion and publicity for activities and events.

RESPONSIBILITIES

Media Outreach:

  • Develops strategy for cultivating and maintaining effective working relationships with writers, editors and producers in the print and electronic media.
  • Determines and organizes media campaigns to align with school/division and USC strategic initiatives. Determines priorities for this outreach and manages media pushes. Performs daily media monitoring; reports results and posts media placements on the Rossier website.
  • Crafts pitches, news releases, backgrounders, biographies, and other materials; compiles facts/statistics, photography and multimedia materials, and press kits as needed.
  • Provides consultative services to School personnel on media and publicity strategies, including positioning, writing/editing and placement of opinion-editorials, essays, research studies, and other thought leadership.
  • Responds to media requests for information and experts. Advises on appropriate School experts/spokespeople for stories.
  • Promotes and arranges interviews between Rossier principals and media representatives. Provides pre-interview preparation and coaching to spokespeople and follows up with media source to complete and promote resulting stories.
  • Promotes Rossier stories for inclusion in USC News online and USC print vehicles and coordinates media opportunities with the central Media Relations team.
  • Plans and conducts press events and hosts/guides media representatives when attending on-campus events, facilitating introductions to Rossier and USC VIPs.

Newswriting:

  • Strategizes, compiles, edits and produces monthly Rossier newsletter for its large internal/external audience.
  • Writes and posts news stories for the Rossier website.
  • Writes news and feature stories for semiannual USC Rossier Magazine and may contribute to the Rossier Blog.
  • Writes clear, engaging, accurate, and compelling copy in a variety of styles appropriate to target audiences.
  • Interprets specialized and/or academic material to produce written communication pieces for desired audience.
  • Researches, verifies accuracy, reads, proofs, edits and rewrites copy. 

Promotion and Publicity

  • Promotes Rossier news on all appropriate School social media channels and sets goals for audience outreach and growth.
  • Promotes and publicizes Rossier activities such as speaking events, public webinars and major student-, alumni-, and research center-focused events through all appropriate channels.
  • Contributes perspective/review or hands-on work to special projects as assigned: presentation development, speeches, photography and videography, graphic design, event emcee duties, etc.
  • Travels to support/promote Rossier, as assigned.
  • May oversee staff, students, freelancers, volunteers, and/or agencies.
  • Performs other duties as assigned or requested.

QUALIFICATIONS

Minimum: Bachelor's degree; 3 years’ relevant professional experience including strong background in press and media relations.

Preferred: Master’s degree. 7 years’ relevant professional experience, preferably in a Public Relations, Journalism or Communications organization or agency, or gained by performing those and related duties within an organization. Nonprofit experience desired; higher education experience strongly preferred. Knowledge of and interest in the field of education a strong plus.

SKILLS

  • Experience with current communication forms such as social media, E-marketing (Constant Contact) and media (Cision, Muckrack) and web monitoring tools (Google Analytics).
  • Experience producing web and social media content and managing postings.
  • Experience with web design and layout (HTML, Drupal), infographics and other design tools.
  • Experience with Adobe Creative Cloud software such as In-Design and Photoshop.
  • Exceptional writing, editing and proofreading skills. Thorough knowledge of the fundamentals of writing, grammar, syntax, style and punctuation.
  • Experience with marketing/communication activities and content.
  • Extreme attention to detail with strong project management and organizational skills.
  • Good interpersonal communication skills, including active listening and effective collaboration skills.

Diversity, equity, and inclusion are integral to our university and school’s commitment to excellence in research, engagement, and education. We encourage applications from candidates who identify with groups that are historically underrepresented in the academy to apply.  Further, we encourage all applicants, as a component of their application package to discuss their experience or commitment to engaging with diversity through activities such as fostering an inclusive environment, working with students from diverse backgrounds, or incorporating diverse perspectives.

REQUIRED DOCUMENTS

Applications must include a cover letter, resume and at least one writing sample. Incomplete applications will not be considered.

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