"Director of Media Relations, Deputy University Spokesperson"

About Fordham

Founded in 1841, Fordham is the Jesuit University of New York, offering an exceptional education distinguished by the Jesuit tradition to more than 16,000 students in its nine colleges and schools. It has residential campuses in the Bronx and Manhattan, a campus in West Harrison, N.Y., the Louis Calder Center Biological Field Station in Armonk, N.Y., and the London Centre in the United Kingdom.

The University offers a comprehensive benefits package that includes medical, dental, and vision insurance; flexible spending accounts; retirement plans; life insurance; short and long-term disability; employee assistance program (EAP); tuition remission; and generous time off.

Successful candidates should have a knowledge of and commitment to the goals of Jesuit Education.

Department:

Marketing and Communications

Campus:

Lincoln Center (LC) - NYC

Position Summary:

Fordham's Director of Media Relations promotes the University in national, international, local and industry media-print, broadcast, digital, podcasts, and emerging-as part of a comprehensive media relations program to advance and protect its worldwide institutional reputation.

As the University's primary contact for media relations, the Director is responsible for day-to-day proactive and reactive media engagement. The Director reports to the Associate Vice President of University Communications, supervises an assistant director, and serves as a key member of the crisis communications team.

Essential Functions:

• Identifies newsworthy stories and develops compelling pitches regarding Fordham staff perspectives, faculty experts, faculty research, student and faculty accomplishments, and University programs and events, and conducts strategic media outreach to secure favorable coverage.
• Fields and navigates incoming media requests, coordinates responses, and oversees in-person and virtual interviews, as well as filming.
• Maintains relationships with the student press and serves as a key point of contact for all engagement and inquiries.
• Monitors and escalates potentially controversial topics or coverage in the media and support issue mitigation and responses.
• Manages and maintains faculty expert, statement, and messaging database.
• Oversees production and edits news and earned media reporting to be shared across the University community.
• Participates as a member of the crisis communications team, providing on-call emergency support as needed.

Required Qualifications:

• Bachelor's Degree.
• Minimum 7 years of media and/or media relations experience.
• Minimum 4 years of experience as a people manager.

Preferred Qualifications:

(Not specified)

Salary:

Minimum Salary: $120,000
Maximum Salary: $145,000