If you care about the future of Michigan and have experience in public engagement or journalism, The Center for Michigan may be the place for you.

We continue to interview for our Outreach Coordinator opening. We're also hiring a Communications Coordinator. Here's the full job description:

Communications Coordinator

The Center for Michigan, a public policy "think-and-do" tank based in Ann Arbor, Michigan, seeks a multi-faceted, full-time Communications Coordinator. This person will play an integral role in the Center's efforts to engage Michigan citizens in developing and implementing a transformational agenda for the state's future. The Communications Coordinator will be responsible for making that policy agenda relevant to the daily lives of everyday citizens in Michigan.

JOB DESCRIPTION:

This is a job for a journalist/communicator/marketer with an entrepreneurial spirit and a penchant for promotion. Your job is to create citizen storytelling tools and produce original reporting to position the Center for Michigan as a vibrant home for the hopes, fears, aspirations, vision, and successes of Michigan’s people. You will tell stories in traditional text and multimedia formats. But you are not solely a reporter. You are also a marketer of your own work. Finding new audiences and placing your work in blogs, print and online publications, and other venues, is a crucial part of the job. Stories will be created once, but told multiple times to multiple audiences.

Your "beat" has two elements:

1. Collecting and Telling the Stories of Michiganians – In the past two years, the Center for Michigan has collected dozens of essays and thousands of photos from Michigan residents. The Communications Coordinator will continue to develop new ways for the full diversity of Michigan residents to share their emotions about Michigan and discuss the future of their state.

2. Provocative, Original Reporting – Through in-depth Community Conversations, some 1,500 Michigan community leaders and citizens have developed a nine-point “Michigan’s Defining Moment” agenda for the state’s transformation to a new era of prosperity. The communications coordinator will flesh out and advance this agenda. This means in-depth issue reporting and analysis, profiling best practices and success stories, benchmarking key indicators, and profiling communities and individual leaders who are out in front. However, each story dealing with public policy must be grounded in emotion and relevance to the lives of everyday people.

There are three main audiences for your work:

1. Michigan's Future Civic Leadership – From high school students to millennials. Your stories must engage, inform, and inspire those most likely to grow into civic leadership roles in their communities.

2. Michigan's Current Civic Leadership – Thousands of current civic leaders are extremely fluent in the challenges facing their communities and the state as a whole. Fresh reporting and analysis is needed to provide these leaders with new ideas, answers, and best practices to navigate in this era of statewide economic transformation.

3. Engaged Citizens – Your storytelling and analysis must be relevant and easily available to everyday voters with a stake in Michigan’s future.

The successful candidate will exhibit the best combination of the following education, experience, and skills:

• An understanding of and appreciation for the mission and activities of the Center for Michigan, most notably the Michigan's Defining Moment Public Engagement Campaign. Full details on all aspects of the campaign are available on the Center's Web site: www.thecenterformichigan.net.
• Solid professional journalism, communications, and marketing experience.
• A multifaceted and compelling portfolio of features, issue stories, profiles, and in-depth explanatory journalism. We do not desire an investigative journalist. We do desire an explanatory journalist who can tell good yarns in multiple formats.
• Photojournalism, online journalism, spreadsheet, and documentary/videography skills are a plus.
• The ability to not only produce strong journalism but also to market it. Your work will appear on the web site of the Center for Michigan, in the weekly Fresh Thoughts for Michigan’s Transformation e-newsletter distributed each Friday by the Center, and in print and multimedia publications created by the Center. However, you will also be expected to place guest columns and reports in other media outlets, including the op-ed pages of traditional media, blogs, and the online journalism web sites of advocacy organizations.
• Hustle. The pace of work will be brisk but sane. You will be expected to produce several crisp pieces each week while steadily reporting and releasing more in-depth reports each month. You will be expected to have reliable transportation but also telecommute and report to a physical office and/or Center for Michigan events once a week or less while maintaining daily email and phone contact with other Center for Michigan team members.

HOW TO APPLY: Applications will be accepted via email only. Please do not call. Interested candidates should email cover letter, resume, and references to

jobs@thecenterformichigan.net.

DEADLINE FOR APPLICATIONS: Friday, March 14, 2008.

COMPENSATION: Salary and benefits are negotiable and will be commensurate with experience.
The Center for Michigan is an equal opportunity employer.