Media Relations & Digital PR Strategy

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Position Summary:

Essential Functions and Job Summary

Responsible for supporting communications strategies for:

• Cross-department media relations
• Experiential communications
• AI optimization
• New media

This role travels between ~10% of the year, depending on priorities.

Major Responsibilities

Media Relations

• Serves as a media relations expert across all business communications functions, providing strategic counsel and identifying opportunities to elevate the league’s storytelling across business areas throughout the year.
• Manages proactive and reactive media outreach that supports key announcements, events and broader business initiatives across every business communications area, including media, partnership, international, team business, crisis and event communications.
• Cultivates and strengthens relationships with key reporters, editors and producers across business, media, tech, health, lifestyle and culture outlets to broaden the league’s storytelling reach.
• Identifies emerging cultural and news trends and recommends proactive PR opportunities that position the league and its executives as thought leaders.
• Supports the transformation of the PR group’s digital newsroom, driving a more agile, digital first approach to news creation, distribution, and amplification.
• Leads the creation of multimedia elements that strengthen PR outputs, including short form videos, motion graphics, social first assets and other creative content that enhances distribution and visibility of business communications announcements.
• Manages business communications-related announcements and promotions across @NBAPR on X and leads business communications-related narrative amplification strategy across digital and creator ecosystems in collaboration with NBA’s social and digital teams.
• Builds and executes PR strategies that engage non‑traditional outlets and emerging platforms, including podcasts, social platforms and creators, to elevate league announcements, initiatives and on-court storylines.
• Develops, maintains, and catalogues media relations materials across business areas.
• Manages PR plans, deliverables, and cross-functional coordination for tentpole events and large-scale communications initiatives.
• Tracks and analyzes PR campaign performance, providing actionable insights for continuous improvement.

Experiential

• Serves as the communications lead for all experiential PR opportunities to drive buzz and visibility for the league’s tentpole events, including the NBA Jersey Day (start-of-season), Red Box (Christmas) and the Larry O'Brien Trophy Tour (Playoffs) and podcast row (NBA Finals).
• Develops media engagement plans tied to experiential storytelling moments, securing national, local and lifestyle press to maximize visibility of activations.
• Measures impact of experiential initiatives through earned and social media coverage, reach and sentiment analysis.
• Coordinates cross functional planning with groups including Events, Marketing, Social and Digital Content and to ensure cohesive execution and maximized visibility.

Artificial Intelligence Optimization

• Optimizes PR messaging so that AI systems and engines can easily discover, understand, summarize and surface the message accurately and effectively.
• Leverages AI-powered tools to enhance drafting press materials, pitch targeting, message optimization while maintaining human editorial oversight.
• Identifies AI best practices for the business communications group to adopt.

Required Education/Professional Experience

• 7+ years of agency, in-house communications or journalism experience
• BA/BS required

Required Skills/Knowledge Attributes

• Proven track record of proactive media relations success, including pitching, media relationship management and securing impactful coverage.
• Strong written communication skills with the ability to produce executive level messaging and high-quality content under tight deadlines.
• Experience developing multimedia assets for PR use, with familiarity in video and graphic production processes.
• Proficiency in Adobe Creative Cloud (InDesign, Photoshop and Acrobat)
• Highly collaborative mindset with the ability to work within a matrixed organization and influence partners across departments.
• Experience navigating and evaluating generative AI tools, AI search features, and summarization technologies, with the ability to translate these capabilities into traditional communications workflows.
• Understanding of how AI systems interpret, rank, and surface information while exercising strong human editorial judgment.
• Excellent project management skills with the ability to balance multiple priorities and work independently.
• Deep understanding of evolving media landscapes across traditional, digital and social platforms.
• High attention to detail, strong organizational capabilities and a solutions-oriented approach to problem solving.
• Collaborates with supervisor to establish priorities and agree on execution plans across multiple departments; stretches own capabilities.
• Identifies issues that impact ability to deliver on a goal and proposes sound solutions.
• Drafts standalone deliverables that meet supervisor’s expressed standards.

Salary Range:

$110,000-$120,000

Job Posting Title:

Employees currently are eligible to receive an annual discretionary performance bonus, awarded at the sole discretion of the Company and subject to any terms and conditions set by the Company. Employees and/or eligible dependents may be eligible to participate in the following Company-sponsored employee benefit programs: medical; dental; vision; life/AD&D insurance; short- and long-term disability; fertility and family-forming assistance; wellbeing allowance; educational assistance; mental health coaching/therapy; tax advantaged accounts such as HSA and healthcare/dependent care FSAs; a 401(k) retirement plan; and time off benefits that include vacation, sick time, and personal days.

We Consider Applicants For All Positions On The Basis Of Merit, Qualifications And Business Needs, And Without Regard To Race, Color, National Origin, Religion, Sex, Gender Identity, Age, Disability, Alienage Or Citizenship Status, Ancestry, Marital Status, Creed, Genetic Predisposition Or Carrier Status, Sexual Orientation, Veteran Status, Familial Status, Status As A Victim Of Domestic Violence Or Any Other Status Or Characteristic Protected By Applicable Federal, State, Or Local Law.

The NBA is committed to providing a safe and healthy workplace. To safeguard our employees and their families, our visitors, and the broader community from COVID-19, and in consideration of recommendations from health authorities and the NBA’s own advisors, any individual working onsite in our New York and New Jersey offices must be fully vaccinated against COVID-19. The NBA will discuss accommodations for individuals who cannot be vaccinated due to a medical reason or sincerely held religious belief, practice, or observance.

About the NBA

The National Basketball Association (NBA) is a global sports and media organization with the mission to inspire and connect people everywhere through the power of basketball. Built around five professional sports leagues: the NBA, WNBA, NBA G League, NBA 2K League and Basketball Africa League, the NBA has established a major international presence with games and programming available in 214 countries and territories in 60 languages, and merchandise for sale in more than 200 countries and territories on all seven continents. NBA rosters at the start of the 2024-25 season featured a record-tying 125 international players from a record-tying 43 countries. NBA Digital’s assets include NBA TV, NBA.com, the NBA App and NBA League Pass. The NBA has created one of the largest social media communities in the world, with more than 2.3 billion likes and followers globally across all leagues, team and player platforms. NBA Cares, the NBA’s global social responsibility platform, partners with renowned community-based organizations around the world to address important social issues in the areas of education, inclusion, youth and family development, and health and wellness.