Assistant editor, audience

Guardian Australia is part of Guardian News & Media (GNM), publisher of theguardian.com. As a leading global media organisation, we are renowned for our pioneering independent journalism and our award-winning digital products.

We are seeking an assistant editor, audience to join our Editorial team to ensure Guardian Australia’s journalism reaches the broadest, most relevant audience. 

This role is being offered on a full-time permanent basis and will involve early starts, late finishes, and weekend work.

In this role you will…

• Ensure Guardian Australia’s journalism reaches the broadest, most relevant audience
• Assist the audience editor in maximising audience and engagement from key external sources and support the development of new referral strategies,  while safeguarding Guardian Australia’s editorial standards and values
• Collaborate with editors to craft engaging, SEO-friendly headlines that draw readers in and improve visibility on search engines. 
• Monitor day-to-day trends across the internet and editorial output on significant topics, identifying editorial opportunities that fit Guardian Australia's remit to offer the best direction to editorial staff on and off platform
• Monitor and analyse performance in major search engines, Google Discover, Google News and other major referrers and use analytics software to track search and referral traffic throughout the day
• Monitor analytics and report on performance, best practice, and competitive set to editorial staff informally, during the morning and afternoon news meetings, via email and through other channels
• Develop creative audience strategies to build promotion, format and other audience considerations into the early stages of major editorial projects, and collaborate with editors across the newsroom to increase the impact, engagement and reach of our most high-profile efforts.
• Advise editorial staff on how to optimise the furniture of individual articles, videos and social media posts, and when to launch them to maximise audience
• Ensure editorial content is optimised in a way that considers editorial integrity and style
• Help define and continually update best practice for digital optimisation with reference to the broader industry and Guardian strategy
• Train editorial staff in best practices for digital optimisation
• Help advocate for the use of data in the newsroom and provide that data wherever appropriate
• Assist in identifying new and emerging platforms and support the development of editorial and business strategies wherever appropriate
• Help manage global social accounts on major platforms as necessary 
• Stay up-to-date on all new search and social developments to identify future opportunities or issues
• Help Guardian Australia evolve to meet the changing needs of the digital media landscape

You’ll bring….

Knowledge and experience

• Excellent knowledge of digital news publishing, SEO, social media, platform landscape and the web
• At least 3 to 5 years' experience working closely in or with a news team in an audience-related role
• Deep understanding of audience development and distribution strategies
• Extensive experience of using web analytics tools to analyse performance
• Experience of news production and content management systems
• Strong writing skills and editorial judgement 
• Experience of working in a busy newsroom and presenting to senior editors
• Experience with social storytelling and visual formats including static design and social video would be an advantage
• Good understanding of Australian media law

Skills / behaviours

• Collaborative, open and inclusive in approach; able to build bridges across the newsroom
• Enthusiastic about experimenting with new formats and ways of reaching audiences.
• Understanding of audience needs and behaviour across different platforms. 
• Comfortable engaging with analytics to take a data-informed approach to decision-making
• Open to learning new skills and adaptable in applying your existing expertise in new ways.
• Experience of working under pressure and adapting to rapidly changing circumstances
• Strong news judgment
• Team player who is confident and quick to learn
• Excellent interpersonal and communication skills 
• Speed and accuracy
• Self-starter, can work unsupervised as well as take instruction, able to plan and prioritise
• Good research skills
• Able to build relations with people at all levels, both internally and externally
• Willingness to embrace different media and non-text ways of telling stories
• Clear vision of the purpose and aims of Guardian Australia, and understanding of our values: honesty, integrity, courage, fairness, and a sense of duty to the reader and the community. 

About working at Guardian Australia… 

• Hybrid working 
• Employee assistance program (EAP) to support employee wellbeing
• Paid volunteer leave
• Dedicated diversity and inclusion employee groups, action plans (including our Reconciliation Action Plan) and cultural competency training
• Guardian digital subscription

For more information please view the full job description here.

This role is being offered on a full-time permanent basis and will involve early starts, late finishes, and weekend work.

To apply for this position, please apply online and upload your résumé (maximum three pages) plus covering letter. In your covering letter please outline your motivation for applying for the role and why you think you are suitable.

Closing date for applications: Wednesday 10 June 2026

If you have application questions or if you require an adjustment to be made during the recruitment process, please email [email protected]

We believe that our role in the Australian media is to give a voice to the most marginalised people in society and value and respect all differences in all people — including people of colour, Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander peoples, people from different social classes, people with diverse gender and sexual identities, and people with disabilities (seen and unseen). We believe that these communities must be centred in the work we do, bringing a new perspective and a diversity of thought. We also encourage flexible working and aim to create a work environment where all employees feel respected.