Multimedia Writer/Producer

OVERVIEW

The University of St. Thomas invites qualified candidates to apply for a Multimedia Writer/Producer (Multi-media Content Spec) position within the Marketing, Insights, and Communications Department.

The University of St. Thomas embraces belonging and equal opportunity for all. Our convictions of dignity, diversity and personal attention call us to embody and champion an inclusive environment.  The University is an Equal Employment Opportunity Employer (EEO).  All qualified applicants will receive consideration for employment without regard to race, color, religion, sex, sexual orientation, gender identity, national origin, disability, age, status as a protected veteran, or other protected characteristic.  This commitment to inclusion and equal opportunity is consistent with our mission: Inspired by Catholic intellectual tradition, the University of St. Thomas educates students to be morally responsible leaders who think critically, act wisely, and work skillfully to advance the common good.  A successful candidate will possess a commitment to the ideals of this mission.

JOIN OUR COMMUNITY

The University of St. Thomas offers a competitive and comprehensive benefits program, which includes:

• Up to 100% tuition remission for employees and dependents upon eligibility
• Up to 50% tuition remission for spouses upon eligibility
• A generous Employer retirement contribution of 9.4% of annual salary upon eligibility
• Medical, dental, and vision options
• Employer-paid disability, life, and AD&D benefits

Salary Range: $58,000 to $70,000

The University of St. Thomas has provided a salary range that represents its good faith estimate of what the University may pay for the position at the time of posting. The specific salary offered will be determined based on factors such as the qualifications of the selected candidate, departmental budget, internal salary equity considerations, and available market information.

JOB SUMMARY

This position is for someone who loves finding and telling multimedia stories, with expertise in both the written word and video storytelling.

The Multimedia Writer/Producer is a key contributor to St. Thomas’ Public Relations and Communications team, which sits within the university’s larger Marketing, Insights & Communications (MIC) department. This position identifies and tells stories that help shape St. Thomas’ image and reputation, as well as keep priority audiences informed of important university news. The Multimedia Writer/Producer contributes story ideas to the larger university editorial calendar and helps bring that calendar to life by creating engaging content. This content will usually take the form of written news and feature stories, complemented with short, engaging videos that bring the stories to life. The role will also identify other appropriate storytelling tactics such as images, graphics and digital content (this is especially important because all of St. Thomas’ storytelling platforms have online components). The Multimedia Writer/Producer will produce weekly content for St. Thomas’ primary owned media properties, including its online newsroom, social media accounts, newsletter, flagship alumni magazine (the St. Thomas Magazine), other platforms produced or operated by individual St. Thomas schools and colleges, e-newsletters and intranet site. Finally, this role will collaborate with MIC photo and video colleagues to assist with producer responsibilities (story concepting, logistics, etc.) for major projects.

This person will report directly to the Director of Communications within the PR & Communications team, collaborating with the director to help shape the long-term editorial calendar for the university, with dotted-line reporting to MIC’s Director of Photography/Videography. This individual is also responsible for maintaining strong relationships with the MIC team’s Creative Department, including other photographers, videographers and creative director.

ESSENTIAL FUNCTIONS

• Content Creation – This role is for a storyteller who will create weekly content across all strategic university media platforms managed by St. Thomas’ PR & Communications team. This person will contribute regular news articles, features and other content to the St. Thomas Newsroom, various e-newsletters, magazines produced by schools and colleges, OneStThomas intranet site and the St. Thomas Magazine. This role includes contributing to the larger editorial goals of the PR & Communications team by actively working to identify and develop storylines that align with university objectives. Duties will include uploading work using content management systems (e.g., WordPress). Content types will include (but not necessarily be limited to):
  • Feature stories – 1,000–2,500-word stories that bring important university initiatives to life through human-interest stories and in-depth reporting. These stories often live on the St. Thomas Newsroom, various university magazines, the main university website and other properties, and sometimes take the form of Q&A formats.
  • News stories & announcements – multiple 500-800-word stories per month written in news style (journalistic) format, Q&As, profiles, and sometimes news release-style format. These stories often live on the St. Thomas Newsroom, the OneStThomas intranet site, and others.
  • Briefs – 100-300-word items that can take the form of magazine or e-newsletter items, or Newsroom post summaries linking to content on other sites.
  • Videos – short 1-3-minute videos that can often live on the St. Thomas Newsroom or YouTube; these videos may take the form of on-camera interviews with subject matter experts, Zoom interviews with spokespeople, b-roll to accompany news stories, etc.
  • Social media posts – on occasion, this position will be asked to draft copy or reels to be used in social media posts promoting their stories.
  • Visuals – suggest and secure (but not necessarily themselves create) creative ideas that bring stories to life (e.g., infographics, animations, photos, etc.)
• Build/Maintain Relationships – The Multimedia Writer/Producer will establish and maintain relationships with key university personnel (marketing leaders, faculty, staff, administrators, students, etc.) for purposes of story mining. This may include attending some in-person meetings and events and joining a strategic committee. This role will collaborate with other marketing and communications staff; weekly bring story ideas for discussion, consistently contribute to brainstorming activities and suggest digital storytelling approaches, formats, and tools that better serve our audience and team.
• Assist with MIC Video Production – The Multimedia Writer/Producer will collaborate with the MIC Department’s Photography/Videography team in helping create highly produced videos used to promote the university (roughly 10 per year). Responsibilities here include concept creation/definition, treatment/outline writing, script writing, helping to manage shoot logistics/scheduling (e.g. scheduling on-camera talent, managing pre-interviews), helping lead on-camera interviews, and helping formalize edits.

QUALIFICATIONS

Minimum Qualifications

• Bachelor’s degree 

• Five years of professional level experience to include the following:

  • experience mining for and developing content (including written, journalistic-style stories) for organizations and/or media outlets

  • experience interviewing sources, managing and editing publications (or relevant knowledge of publishing operations), and  producing and editing video

  • familiarity with the Adobe Creative Suite, specifically the ability to edit in Adobe Premiere.
• Candidates will be asked to submit a portfolio of writing samples and video projects.

An equivalent combination of education and experience from which comparable knowledge and skills have been acquired may be substituted.

HOW TO APPLY

All interested candidates must apply online at https://www.stthomas.edu/jobs/. Follow the instructions to complete an online application which includes creating or updating an applicant profile, uploading a resume, and completing a job specific application.

In light of its commitment to create and maintain a safe learning and working environment, employment with the University of St. Thomas requires consent and successful completion of a background screening.

Official job posting is available at www.stthomas.edu/jobs.