Be Study Hall’s First Community Organizer

We are a media-focused newsletter and digital community for freelance media workers. Subscribe: studyhall.xyz // Contact: info@studyhall.xyz.

Overview:

Study Hall is a subscription-based digital community of 1000+ media workers, with weekly newsletters, a listserv, and social network with exclusive resources. We recently made our first public statement on labor with an open letter against The Outline’s treatment of staff writers and freelancers (see coverage). Our members are excited about building on this momentum and developing more public standards and expectations for publications’ relationships with freelancers.

We are looking for a part-time community organizer who will develop these organizing efforts based on their own experience and ideas. We’re not sure exactly how this will work, but that’s the appeal of the experiment. This is not precisely a union — our members work for clients at will, with no pressure or expectations for boycotts or blacklists — but it might serve some of a union’s function for those who opt into it, particularly in terms of having a collective public voice. We also want to start more deeply collaborating with unions and other media organizations.

Job Structure:

• $1000 / month to start, with a contract of 3 months. The initial payment will be made in advance of beginning work.
• Approximately 10 hours a week of work, with progress benchmarks and deadlines.

This is a contract position, ideal for someone who already freelances or wants to add to the work they already have.

Expectations:

The work will be remote but it’s always nice if we can meet in person. Study Hall’s staff are currently based in NYC, Philly, DC and Chicago.

The organizer should have experience in organizing and/or community development as well as some fluency in digital journalism (aka media twitter). Freelance writers with reporting knowledge of labor practices will also be considered.

The organizer should be digitally confident: we use a few different platforms and while we don’t expect you to already know them, we want someone who is adept at learning how to use digital tools.

The organizer will manage discussions in our community about unions, advocacy, and labor structures, actively participating in the listserv and following conversation on a weekly basis.

The organizer will:

• Develop proposals for organizing Study Hall’s members going forward and will be the point of contact for suggestions and feedback.
• Work with Study Hall’s staff to use member survey data to write public reports and develop new surveys around organizing efforts (publication and payment standards, for example).
• Develop connections with other labor and media organizations.
• Think about governance structures for our community, looking toward long-term implementation.

We want this to be a collaborative process, so responsibilities and areas of focus can vary depending on who you are and what you want to do.

Why you should work for us:

• Develop “basically unprecedented” organization for media freelancers.
• Get paid to think about unions and experiment with labor structures.
• Develop relationships with and among our 1000+ members.
• Contribute writing to Study Hall newsletters & features for added fees.
• Work for a tiny, sustainable, non-VC media organization funded by people who care about it.
• Tons of room for growth and ambition

Application process:

Send an email to both Study Hall co-founders Kyle Chayka and Enav Moskowitz, kyle@studyhall.xyz and enav@studyhall.xyz, with the list of information below (applications without this format will not be considered) by the deadline of September 24. We’ll contact selected individuals for interviews ASAP.

1. Subject line “ORGANIZER APPLICATION: Your Name”.

2. A paragraph in the body of the email summarizing your work experience with organizing, community management, and digital journalism as well as your current location / work situation.

3. A paragraph in the body of the email on why you want to fill the role and what you bring to Study Hall, briefly summarizing your vision for organizing the community.

4. One-page resume attached.

5. Please follow the above formats — applications that don’t show us you haven’t actually thoroughly read the job description!

Email us at kyle@studyhall.xyz and enav@studyhall.xyz with any questions. We will likely receive a high volume of applications, and cannot respond to everyone personally. Finalists will be contacted shortly after the application deadline to set up in-person or Skype interviews. Thanks for reading, and subscribe to Study Hall here.

— Kyle Chayka and Enav Moskowitz