Job Title: Head of Audience Development

Location: Doha, Qatar (On-site preferred)

Job Type: Full-time

About Us:

We are a leading independent online news platform based in Qatar, committed to delivering credible, timely, and engaging journalism to a growing digital audience. We cover a wide range of topics including local news, regional affairs, business, culture, and lifestyle stories. As we expand our operations and deepen our impact, we are seeking a Head of Audience Development to drive how our journalism reaches, resonates with, and grows its audience across platforms.

This is a strategic and hands-on leadership role focused on analytics, distribution, engagement, and digital innovation.

Job Summary:

The Head of Audience Development will lead our audience strategy across all digital touchpoints—including the website, application, newsletters, social media, search, and emerging platforms. This role sits at the intersection of editorial, data, and product, ensuring our content finds the right audience, in the right format, at the right time. The successful candidate will be a digital native who can combine data insights with editorial intuition to expand reach and deepen impact.

Key Responsibilities:

Audience Strategy

• Develop and execute a holistic audience growth strategy across platforms (web, application, email, search, social, referrals).
• Set benchmarks and KPIs for growth, engagement, and retention, using data to inform tactics and measure performance.
• Identify new audiences and digital opportunities for editorial expansion.

Platform Optimization

• Oversee distribution strategy on social media (Instagram, X, TikTok, LinkedIn, YouTube), ensuring tone and timing match audience behavior.
• Work closely with the SEO lead to improve discoverability and optimize content structure.
• Develop strategies for push notifications, newsletters, and app engagement.

Analytics & Insights

• Lead on editorial analytics reporting—providing actionable insights to the newsroom on what works, what doesn’t, and why.
• Use tools like Google Analytics, Chartbeat, and social media dashboards to inform strategy.
• Create feedback loops with editors and reporters to adapt content approaches.

Collaboration & Training

• Collaborate with the Editor-in-Chief and department heads to align audience growth with editorial priorities.
• Conduct regular workshops and one-on-one sessions with editorial staff to build digital literacy and platform fluency.
• Coordinate closely with tech/product and marketing teams to ensure audience needs are reflected in UX and design decisions.

Innovation & Experimentation

• Stay ahead of digital publishing trends, algorithm changes, and audience habits.
• Test new formats, headlines, packaging methods, and publishing rhythms.
• Develop and refine audience personas to guide tone and strategy.

Qualifications:

• Bachelor’s degree in Journalism, Communications, Digital Media, or a related field.
• Minimum 5–7 years of experience in audience development, digital growth, or social/content strategy at a media organization.
• Strong grasp of content performance metrics, SEO, social platform algorithms, and newsletter strategies.
• Experience with Google Analytics, data visualization tools, and CMS publishing workflows.
• Demonstrated success in growing audiences organically and through experimentation.
• Excellent communication and collaboration skills.

Preferred Attributes

• A sharp editorial eye and understanding of how stories can be shaped for specific audiences.
• Ability to translate complex data into meaningful editorial recommendations.
• Familiarity with the Qatari or GCC digital landscape.
• Arabic proficiency is an advantage.

What We Offer

• Competitive salary and benefits.
• Opportunity to shape and lead the audience strategy of a respected regional media brand.
• A collaborative, forward-thinking newsroom.
• Creative freedom and resources to test and build new audience products.

How to Apply

Please send your CV, cover letter, and examples of growth initiatives or analytics-driven content strategies to: [email protected]

Only shortlisted candidates will be contacted.