We're looking for someone to supercharge Knight's transformation into a truly interactive foundation:

 

Online Community Manager
Do you live digital? Have a track record of building online communities? A knack for engaging readers? Passionate about how the digital age is impacting journalism, communities and democracy?

 

The John S. and James L. Knight Foundation may have the job for you as its online community manager based in our Miami, Florida headquarters.

' Play a key role in making Knight the first truly interactive foundation by creating genuine, two-way digital communication thereby enriching the connections with the big thinkers and innovators we seek to invest in;

' Be both an evangelist and player-coach who helps Knight staff and the foundation's community of grantees use social media and technology for the greater good.

' Establish the foundation as the leading proponent of community engagement in the digital age and as a leader in our field in the use of digital resources.

The John S. and James L. Knight Foundation advances journalism in the digital age and invests in the vitality of communities where the Knight brothers owned newspapers. Knight Foundation focuses on projects that promote community engagement and lead to transformational change. Discover more at www.knightfoundation.org.

If you are a digital media pro known for your innovative work in stimulating community/social network interactions, and our mission and this opportunity excites your passions, we want to hear from you. Please send your resume and links to examples of your best work to Henry Scott at henry@intermediatorgroup.com.

Knight Foundation is an equal opportunity employer.

 

In the video below, Marc Fest, Knight's VP of Communications, explains why this position is such an excellent opportunity.

Update: Also, read this interview with Marc Fest for more information on how this position came about.

From Eric Newton, VP of Journalism, Knight Foundation:

At Harvard, Shorenstein Center's Alex Jones gets attention for his latest book, Losing the News. The Pulitzer winner and Harvard prof describes the "erosion" of traditional news media. (See too President Obama's remarks at the Walter Cronkite memorial.) Shorenstein is trying to improve the future of news as part of the Carnegie-Knight Initiative on the Future of Journalism Education.

At Yale, the "creative" side of the story of the "creative destruction" of news media is explored by Richard Foster, past McKinsey exec, in books like'' Innovation: The Attacker's Advantage . Foster has been talking for decades about how some companies are destroyed by new competitors but how others survive.'

In his book, Jones writes: "The Knight Foundation, which is dedicated to journalistic priorities, is helping uncover all kinds of new models for news that will engage and also stay true to the essentials. The most encouraging aspect of Knight's enterprise is that new ideas poured in when they offered funding for pilot projects, which is a demonstration that news remains exciting as an ideal and a vocation. People want to do news, and this time of transition has been a catalyst for creativity after far too long when the traditional media were too comfortable. Being terrified as prompted more energy and innovation in the news business than ever."

Knight is funding the pilot projects Jones talks about under our Knight News Challenge. Apply here.

Look for more on the state of the nation's information health in the upcoming report of the Knight Commission of the Information Needs of Communities in a Democracy.

Back in August, Wired contributor Evan Ratliff vanished. Before disappearing, he issued a challenge: whoever found him would win $5,000. He purposely left a few obscure digital breadcrumbs to make the challenge winnable within five weeks, and then got lost.

Yesterday, the challenge was won by the makers of Knight-funded software NewsCloud, a Facebook application for creating social engagement around news. Using a mix of high-tech digital forensics and old-fashioned footwork, Jeff Reifman located Ratliff in New Orleans and conspired with the proprietors of a joint called Naked Pizza to catch him there.

You can read the full account of the sting operation at the NewsCloud blog, and more about the contest on Wired's Vanish blog.

Update - More on NewsCloud: A Slashdot post and hundreds of tweets later, I asked Jeff Reifman a little bit more about NewsCloud, the software he put to unconventional use to help locate Evan Ratliff. NewsCloud's potential as a way to engage younger folks with the news was recently studied in two pilot projects targeting 16-to-25-year-olds, in partnership with Grist.org and the University of Minnesota.

"What we found," Jeff said, "was that the design of the Facebook news application was great at improving daily news habits of young people in the 16-to-25 age range. We found that people started returning every day to get a sense of what's going on."

You can explore the NewsCloud app on Facebook at NewsCloud.com. And you can read more detailed findings from the study on the NewsCloud blog.