WordPress Product Manager

Summary:
MediaNews Group is seeking a visionary Product Manager to lead our WordPress team, focusing on content product and distribution through our cutting-edge CMS platform. This strategic role is centered on enhancing how we serve our primary customers: our network of newsrooms and their diverse audiences. As the steward of our digital publishing capabilities, you'll play a crucial role in shaping the tools and technologies that empower our newsrooms to deliver compelling content efficiently and effectively to readers across various platforms.
What you will do:

• Spearhead the creation, presentation, and ownership of the quarterly product roadmap
• Collaborate with a wide range of stakeholders-including the team project manager, the technical director, senior staff, and other teams' product and project managers-to incorporate their input and requests, ensuring our roadmap aligns with the evolving needs of our newsrooms and their audiences
• Oversee the sprint pipeline, maintaining a deep understanding of every new Jira story or bug on the CMS Jira board; you will assign stories to the appropriate sprints or the backlog, enriching each with clear and actionable descriptions to ensure our development efforts meet the needs of our content creators and their distribution strategies
• Actively generate Jira stories for new requests or bugs, facilitating a robust and responsive development process that keeps pace with the dynamic nature of news production and distribution
• Foster strong communication channels with editors and other stakeholders to deeply understand their challenges, needs, and opportunities; your role is pivotal in bridging the gap between the technological capabilities of our CMS and the editorial ambitions of our newsrooms, ensuring that our platform supports efficient content creation, management, and distribution
• Cultivate productive relationships with key vendors to enhance our CMS's capabilities, this involves coordinating with vendors like Osano, Pushly, and CitySpark, among others, to secure the best tools and services that support our content distribution goals
• Lead comprehensive training sessions for new site migrations/implementations and introduce new features to various stakeholders to ensure that our newsrooms are well-equipped to use our CMS effectively, maximizing the impact of our content on our audience
• Employ tools such as Aha to meticulously track the CMS team's work, promptly respond to Ideas portal submissions, and keep our product development efforts in lockstep with our strategic objectives to better serve our newsrooms and their audiences

What you will bring:

• Proven track record in product management, with a strong emphasis on CMS, WordPress, or similar platforms, particularly in contexts serving newsrooms and digital content distribution
• Expertise in Agile and Scrum project management methodologies, with the ability to adapt and thrive in a fast-paced news production environment
• Exceptional communication and interpersonal skills, capable of engaging effectively with technical teams and editorial staff
• Solid experience in vendor management, ensuring the selection and integration of the best tools and services to support our CMS's content distribution capabilities
• Analytical and strategic thinking skills, with a commitment to delivering user-centric solutions that address the needs of both content creators and their audiences
• Leadership qualities that inspire collaboration, innovation, and excellence within the team
• Bachelor's or Master's degree in Business, Computer Science, or a related field, with a deep understanding of the digital news landscape

The annual salary range is $100,000 - $115,000. Pay is based on several factors including but not limited to education, work experience, time in role, certifications, etc. In addition to your salary, MediaNews Group offers a comprehensive benefits package, and a 401K plan (all benefits are based on eligibility).
Who we are:
MediaNews Group is a leader in local news, committed to informing, inspiring and engaging readers with award-winning journalism in a diverse array of trusted publications that are integral parts of the communities they serve. MediaNews Group publishes 68 daily and more than 300 weekly publications throughout the United States, including the Denver Post, San Jose Mercury News, Orange County Register, St. Paul Pioneer Press and the Boston Herald. In print and online, our publications reach a combined audience of more than 60 million every month. We are proud of our long history of community service, providing essential news to our readers for more than 170 years. We believe that a free press is fundamental to a healthy democracy and we are committed to building a sustainable future for our journalism.
The Product & Technology team's mission is to create people-centric digital technology that empower our local news and partners by putting people, product, and performance first. True to our purpose, we help small teams play big! We build product experiences not only for our local news publications across the entire digital portfolio, now including our affiliate company Tribune Publishing, but also for the Adtaxi digital marketing agency as well. As part of our team, you will contribute to a culture that prioritizes and rewards continuous learning, decentralized decision making, expertise, agility, and pragmatism. Join us to kick-start your career at a company and team that offer substantial personal and professional growth opportunities via a hands-on learning approach and a flexible working style, founded on scaled agile principles and autonomous agile teams. Learn more at www.medianewsgroup.com.
We are an equal opportunity employer. All applicants will be considered for employment without attention to race, color, religion, sex, sexual orientation, gender identity, national origin, veteran or disability status.
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