Director of Events, Cityside

Applications for the director of events position are now closed. Thank you for your interest.

We’re looking for a thoughtful and innovative events leader at Cityside Journalism Initiative, an exciting nonprofit organization devoted to building community and strengthening democracy through local journalism.

Launched in 2020, Cityside is home to two widely read, award-winning local journalism platforms in the San Francisco Bay Area, Berkeleyside and Oaklandside, with plans to report in more communities in the near future. 

One of the most exciting ways we build and connect with the communities we serve is through live events. Live events are powerful opportunities to create new conversations about the issues we report on. They help us reach and hear from people beyond our digital platforms. And they help us build and strengthen bonds with new and regular readers of our work.  

We’re looking for an experienced, creative events professional who can lead in developing, producing, and marketing our current program of events—as well as help us dream up and launch new ones. 

Our event line-up currently includes Oaklandside Culture Makers, a quarterly series with some of The Town’s most fascinating culture makers;  Oaklandside Live, an annual celebration of Oaklandside’s reporting; and Berkeleyside Idea Makers, quarterly live conversations with the people who are extending Berkeley’s tradition of pioneering thinking (a follow-on from Berkeleyside’s successful Uncharted Ideas Festival which ran for six years, from 2013 to 2018).

We also partner with local events organized by others—from large-scale efforts like the Oakland Marathon to neighborhood happenings like street fairs and farmers markets—through media sponsorships, in-person appearances, and more. These partnerships help us support important efforts in our community and get the word out about our own work. 

Lastly, we organize events with a strong fundraising focus, from “friendraisers” to get-togethers with our members and donors. That said, we aim to ensure that all our events play a role in our revenue and sustainability goals. 

We’re eager for new ideas about how live events can increase local participation in, and understanding of, the forces that shape people’s lives in Berkeley, Oakland, and beyond. We’d love to work with an imaginative self-starter with an entrepreneurial streak who is attracted to Cityside’s scrappy, nimble, punching-above-its-weight ethos.

Working with our editors, reporters, and audience engagement editor, you will help conceive, curate, and shape the content of our events and manage all aspects of their production and promotion. You will also collaborate with the Cityside sponsorship team to help identify and bring on board organizations that will partner with us and underwrite our events.

You’ll report to Cityside’s Editorial Director. The salary range for this position is $100,000 to $125,000. We’re a hybrid workplace, but we will need this person to live in the Bay Area. You’ll have access to Cityside’s healthcare plan, four weeks of paid leave, and a 401(k) match. You’ll also have a $1,000 annual stipend towards professional development. 

We’re committed to building an inclusive organization that represents the people and communities we serve. That’s key to ensuring our work is as valuable and impactful as possible. We especially encourage members of traditionally underrepresented communities to apply for this position, including women, people of color, LGBTQ people, and people with disabilities.

What you’ll do

• Be the lead on our editorial events, from soup to nuts 
• Ensure the production of our events meets the high standards our audiences expect from Cityside 
• Find and book venues and be the point person for them
• Be the point person for speakers, performers, sponsors, and suppliers
• Coordinate closely with editors, reporters, and audience engagement editor
• Manage the budgets for all our events 
• Devise the strategy for, and lead on the promotion and marketing of, all our events to ensure robust ticket sales and to build brand awareness 

Candidates who are hired at the higher end of our salary range will, from Day One on the job, also be fully prepared to:

• Dream up new, creative ideas to improve upon and to expand our portfolio, especially with an eye to engaging with and serving communities directly impacted by issues we cover
• Work closely with our sponsorship team to ensure we have the sponsorship support needed for our events
• Lead on and develop new fundraising-focused events
• Lead on situating and aligning our existing and future events within the broader strategic vision and mission of Cityside, and be a compelling champion for this work within our company, the communities we serve, and the broader fields of local journalism and civic information service

What you’ll need to succeed

• Excellent team working skills
• Ability to work independently and successfully manage multiple projects with competing deadlines
• Excellent attention to detail

We’re especially interested in candidates who

• Have demonstrated success in producing and marketing events with excellent editorial content
• Have worked in, or have a passion for, journalism
• Have a clear understanding of editorial independence and the importance of maintaining clear boundaries between our revenue and editorial operations
• Have excellent public speaking skills
• Are personally grounded in communities represented in the Bay Area

Some great candidates may not check all the boxes above, and may have valuable skills not included here. If that’s you, please don’t hesitate to apply and tell us why you would thrive in this role. If you have questions in advance of applying for this position, we encourage you to reach out to Cityside Co-Founder and Editorial Director Tracey Taylor at tracey@citysidejournalism.org.

About Cityside

Learn more about our work and our funders at citysidejournalism.org.