Manager, Media Relations

By Andrew B. Einhorn Jul 08 2008, 05:35 PM

The New America Foundation is seeking a communications professional with 4–8 years experience to manage, expand, and improve the visibility of our ideas and individuals. The ideal candidate will have a love of public policy and the DC media world, and the proven ability to turn complex issues into compelling media coverage.

Primary Responsibilities

Work with colleagues in various policy programs to develop specific media plans for their initiatives.
Leverage events, op-eds, and policy papers to generate increased earned media coverage for New America.
Coordinate and expand radio/TV booking of New America fellows and staff.
Identify online opportunities and cultivate appropriate relationships with bloggers and other online opinion leaders.
Coach and encourage senior colleagues to effectively work with all forms of media.
Help to manage, update, and cultivate New America's extensive contact database, which comprises media and opinion leaders and public affairs audiences.
Ensure that all media coverage is tracked and internally distributed.
Continually build own understanding of New America's programs, individuals and ideas in order to more effectively promote them.

Qualifications

Ideal candidates will have the following qualifications:

4-8 years of professional communications experience, preferably on Capitol Hill or with a public policy organization;
Solid relationships with reporters and producers at the national level;
Persuasive communication skills and confidence in presentation, whether by phone, in person or in writing;
Proven media outreach experience, particularly with radio/TV booking, and demonstrated success pitching events, report releases, and policy experts.
Outstanding organizational skills, excellent time management, and the ability to manage complex operations in a fast-paced environment;
An energetic, team-player attitude; and
A bachelor's degree is required.

Application Process

E-mail a resume and cover letter to: Human Resources, New America Foundation, 1630 Connecticut Avenue, NW, 7th Floor, Washington, DC 20009. Fax: 202-986-3696. E-mail: jobs@newamerica.net. Please state “Manager, Media Relations” in the e-mail subject line. No phone calls, please. Generous salary package commensurate with experience; excellent benefits. The New America Foundation is an equal opportunity employer.

About New America

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The New America Foundation is a nonprofit, nonpartisan public policy institute that invests in new thinkers and new ideas to address the next generation of challenges facing the United States.

New America emphasizes work that is responsive to the changing conditions and problems of our 21st Century information-age economy -- an era shaped by transforming innovation and wealth creation, but also by shortened job tenures, longer life spans, mobile capital, financial imbalances and rising inequality.

The foundation's mission is animated by the American ideal that each generation will live better than the last. That ideal is today under strain. Our education and health care systems are struggling with problems of quality, cost and access. The country requires creative means to address its fiscal challenges and pay for needed public, social and environmental investments. Abroad, the United States has yet to fashion sustainable foreign and defense policies that will protect its citizens and interests in a rapidly integrating world.

Too often, these challenges have proven impervious to conventional party politics and incremental proposals. With an emphasis on big ideas, impartial analysis and pragmatic solutions, New America invests in outstanding individuals whose ability to communicate to wide and influential audiences can change the country's policy discourse in critical areas, bringing promising new ideas and debates to the fore.

Launched in 1999, the foundation was guided through a period of rapid growth by founding president Ted Halstead. The insititute is now led by President and CEO Steve Coll and an outstanding Board of Directors, chaired by Eric Schmidt. New America is headquartered in Washington D.C. and also has a significant presence in California, the nation's largest laboratory of democracy.