Hybrid Vice President, Earned Media Strategist

at Edelman

• Job title: Vice President, Earned Media Strategist
• Job type: Full Time
• Experience level: Lead
• Salary: $95,000 - $165,000 per year
• Degree requirement: Bachelor's Degree
• Location requirements: Hybrid, Chicago, United States

About the role

• Vice President, Earned Media Strategist at Edelman, specializing in earned media strategy and execution with a focus on collaborative and audience-centric storytelling.

Responsibilities

• You are a creative, outside-of-the-box thinker, storyteller and leader who lives and breathes media, and are an avid consumer of the media in all its forms.  You have a constant sense of what’s trending in the news and have your finger on the culturally relevant conversations among consumers.
• You work in collaboration with account teams —and other specialists, including creative, planning, analytics, digital, and creator marketing — on all forms of earned media strategy and execution for clients.
• You have an exceptional understanding of the consumer/lifestyle media landscape and the top stories in the news. You can craft storylines and themes reporters will view as newsworthy, and an ability to create integrated earned media strategies that will resonate across platforms and diverse media channels.
• You possess the confidence to counsel executives and the C-Suite on effective earned media strategies and partner and have a solid working knowledge of social/digital platforms and management of visual assets—with familiarity with the aspects of production and video as a medium to tell stories.
• Beyond media relations, the position requires strong networking and writing skills. And you are a capable speaker who is organized, confident and professional. You effectively manage projects and budgets and can delegate work effectively, while overseeing a large volume of short-term and longer-term/complex assignments on your accounts. You can also accurately judge and edit the work of junior team members and manage direct report(s) and support their career development.

Requirements

• Minimum of 8 years of experience in earned media and media relations.
• Bachelor’s degree or equivalent work experience
• Prior experience in an agency environment strongly preferred
• Demonstrated ability to digest and understand a wide variety of accounts – their business, products, markets, personnel, and outside influencers, among other aspects, and succinctly translate and develop this material into newsworthy storylines and themes.
• Established relationships with reporters across a variety of verticals and media outlets with success securing impactful media from top-tier outlets within print, online, broadcast and other formats such as podcasts, video, and social content
• Strong client counselor with proven ability to help influence/educate clients on the role earned media plays within their communications and marketing efforts, help clients understand what reporters/media are looking for, and be able to articulate the current media landscape and climate.
• Excellent storytelling skills, and provide sound media counsel to clients and colleagues
• Consistent ability to develop, manage and implement media relations strategies across all communications channels
• AP style and grammar, spelling and punctuation master
• Ability to research, interview, write and edit a range of media communications (press releases, media alerts, pitches, briefing books, post-project recap reports)
• Experience drafting complex client correspondence and strategies/program recommendations
• Proven ability to manage large projects (including budgets) and small teams simultaneously, function as a daily client contact, as well as develop and execute plans to meet client goals

Benefits

• medical and dental insurance
• vision
• 401K
• life insurance
• disability insurance
• paid time off
• travel assistance
• wellness programing