Executive Producer

One of Canada's leading independent journalists is hiring an Executive Producer.

I'm Paul Wells, sole employee at the Paul Wells newsletter, paulwells.substack.com. I've also got a podcast; I organize live events; I do public speaking.

It's a lot.

I've decided to hire someone to help me with logistics, event planning, business development and other aspects of this growing small business.

The successful candidate will have fascinating and intellectually challenging work, and all kinds of latitude to define their role.

This will be a one-year contract position. It could be extended.

Responsibilities

In the old days, newspapers had a business side and a newsroom. I want you to concentrate on the business so I can concentrate on reporting, writing and interviewing.

I publish a Newsletter. Last year its audience grew by half. You could analyze subscriber growth, recruit freelancers and stringers for occasional assignments, schedule live online subscriber chats or video interviews with newsmakers, organize my schedule and travel, help generate story ideas.

I don't expect you will write, but I'll listen to pitches.

I host a Podcast . You could chase and book guests, build relations with book publishers, universities and other sources of guests, find sponsors.

My Audience is growing fast. I'd love for that to continue. You could spot and encourage trends in subscriber growth, develop a paywall strategy that's better than what my gut tells me, investigate whether ads or social media could promote audience growth.

I organize Live Events . That means putting me, interesting guests, a happy audience and a bunch of logistical support into the same room at the same time.

This requires journalistic and event-planning chops in the same person.

It's impossible to do all these things at once. But I've been doing most of them for two years. And I bet it would work better if you and I divided the work and brainstormed on strategies and opportunities.

Qualifications

I imagine this as a good job for a TV or podcast producer with some experience and great potential. But we're breaking new ground here, so I can imagine hiring somebody with very different kinds of experience.

Maybe you're a reporter. Maybe you have experience in politics or government, advertising, I dunno. You tell me. What matters is that you be smart, creative, fascinated by Canadian and international politics, practical and imaginative.

And a self-starter. I won't have much time to manage you. You won't have much luck managing me. We're going to have to trust each other.

Excellent knowledge of spoken and written French isn't required but would be a definite plus. Candidates of all backgrounds are encouraged to apply.

Send me a cover letter explaining why you are interested; a CV if you have one; clips or links to your best work; and audio or video files that absolutely aren't humungous if you think that will help me understand you.