Careers

Willamette Week is Portland’s go-to alternative media source for news, politics, arts and culture. WW produces a weekly newspaper, annual culture magazines, a podcast, major events and daily content across our website, newsletters and social channels. Each month we publish original content on wweek.com and in weekly print editions, keeping over 2 million unique readers consistently up to date, engaged and coming back for more through our newsletters, social channels, magazines, events and more.

We also operate a charitable effort that has raised more than $64 million for local nonprofits since 2004, and we are the only weekly newspaper ever to have won the Pulitzer Prize for Investigative Reporting.

We are a team of hard working individuals committed to making Portland a better place.


Education Reporter

Do you want to make life better for a generation of children? Do you have the investigative chops to dig into school budgets and enrollment numbers, the patience to listen to parents whose kids are being failed by the system, and the courage to challenge an educational establishment that rewards mediocrity? Then we need you in Portland, Oregon.

Willamette Week, the locally-owned, Pulitzer Prize-winning newspaper and media company in Portland, is seeking an education reporter to cover everything from a universal preschool program to university campuses that have become political battlegrounds. Most of all, this reporter will dig into a K-12 school system that has left Oregon kids trailing far behind their peers in other states. If you can write stories that keep readers in their seats, enjoy reading free-lunch lists with dinner, and your idea of a fun weekend is interviewing high schoolers about their lives, you’re just the person we’re looking for. Come from a background that’s underrepresented in journalism? That’s even better. Send a resume and three clips to amesh@wweek.com.


Friends of Willamette Week Manager

Portland, Oregon

Posted March 13, 2024

Supervisor Toni Tringolo, Executive Director

Location Hybrid: At a minimum, we meet in-person on Tuesdays and Thursdays.

Type Full-time, with a semi-flexible schedule.

Salary Range $57,000

To Apply Apply here (Google Form)

Be prepared to upload your resume (pdf only, under 10 mb), share your LinkedIn profile and answer these questions:

  1. How have your professional, academic, or lived experiences prepared you to be successful in this role?
  2. What fundraising experience do you have?
  3. What’s your ideal work environment?
  4. How do you like to be managed?
  5. How do you track your tasks and stay focused?

Hiring Process: Review of applications will begin immediately. Interviews by the Executive Director will follow. Final candidates will be asked for references (2 professional, 1 personal). Position will remain open until filled. We hope to hire quickly.

We embrace diversity and encourage applicants from all backgrounds to apply. Our priority is to select the most suitable candidate for the position, and we recognize that excellence can come from various experiences and perspectives.

Job Summary: Willamette Week, Portland’s most vital source for news and culture coverage, seeks a Manager for our Friends of Willamette Week (FOWW) program - a vital and growing revenue source for our journalism. In this role you will be doing everything from managing our donor database and membership activity to developing fundraising campaigns and ideating merch: all in service of growing our reader revenue. This is an amazing opportunity for someone who cares about being connected to their city, understands the importance of local journalism, and is excited by the opportunity to shape their own role and develop a department. You’ll get to build strong relationships within WW to stay current with priorities and special projects to effectively represent the journalism to funders. In addition to owning our reader revenue program, 20% of this role will also work on WW marketing initiatives as they arise in an admin capacity: developing marketing calendars, promoting small WW events, assisting with social media etc.

You’ll report to the FOWW Executive Director and work collaboratively with WW staff across departments. Note: while this position operates very much like a nonprofit fundraising professional, WW is not a nonprofit—we have a fiscal sponsorship established that allows for our donors to give tax-deductible contributions. We encourage people from all experience levels to apply for this role. While we value experience, we are most excited by smart, resourceful people who understand our journalism, fundraising, and are excited by a challenge!

Responsibilities include all FOWW operations:

• Collaborate with FOWW Executive Director to set fundraising goals and strategic plans

• Monitor revenue and Google analytics and share reports with WW’s leadership

• Manage donor database and related activities including gift entry and acknowledgements, list preparation, prospecting, segmentation, and data integrity

• Manage membership and other FOWW initiatives

    • Nurture existing funder relationships and seek new opportunities
    • Develop campaign messaging and organize engagement events
    • Lead efforts to raise funds by identifying, soliciting, cultivating, and stewarding donors
    • Create impactful storytelling and communication material including monthly newsletters
    • Plan and execute two annual fundraising campaigns including one in the Give!Guide
    • Distribute membership benefits and manage benefit inventory
    • Develop a limited merch line to benefit FOWW

• Events

    • Attend events on behalf of WW, representing Willamette Week

• Manage FOWW calendar and ensure coordinated activities across WW departments

• Stay informed about WW’s work to identify funding opportunities

• WW Marketing

    • Assist with marketing planning and producing for WW projects (newsletter growth, circulation changes, event promotion etc.)

• Meet or exceed annual revenue goals

• Other duties as assigned

Qualifications

  • Excellent communication skills (written and verbal)
  • Google suite skills or ability to quickly learn (Gmail, Calendar, Sheets, Docs, Forms, Meet)
  • Nonprofit experience, especially a fundraising background, is extremely helpful
  • Donor database or other CRM experience
  • A bachelor’s degree is preferred
  • Experience with Canva is a plus

Our ideal candidate will be passionate about journalism and building community. Other valuable traits include:

  • An eye for systems and data management with extreme attention to data integrity
  • Kindness and professionalism
  • Initiative, curiosity, empathy, and humor
  • Dependable—plans ahead and stays organized, not a procrastinator. Hits deadlines.
  • Able to set priorities, take initiative, and manage simultaneous projects
  • Self motivated and goal driven
  • Knowing when to ask for help
  • Collaborative partnership but with an independent work ethic
  • Problem solve with transparency and positivity
  • Identify strategies for optimization
  • Calm under pressure

About Willamette Week: Willamette Week is Portland’s go-to alternative media source for news, politics, arts and culture. WW produces a weekly newspaper, annual culture magazines, a podcast, major events and daily content across our website, newsletters and social channels. Each month we publish original content on wweek.com and in weekly print editions, keeping over 2 million unique readers consistently up to date, engaged and coming back for more through our newsletters, social channels, magazines, events and more. We also operate Give!Guide, a charitable effort that has raised more than $64 million for local nonprofits since 2004, and we are the only weekly newspaper ever to have won the Pulitzer Prize for Investigative Reporting.