The Press Coordinator handles a variety of Met-related activities within a fast-paced, in-house press department. The ideal candidate is highly organized, motivated, and creative, and a collaborative self-starter with a love of opera and excellent writing skills who demonstrates strong judgment and attention to detail.
Primary Responsibilities:
- Provide administrative support to the Met Opera’s Press office.
- Manage, vet, and respond to inquiries via the general press email and phone line.
- Monitor press mentions including reviews and features and compile daily clip reports for internal distribution to Met staff, Board Members, and other key stakeholders.
- Build and manage internal and external communications lists.
- With the approval of the Press Director, process press ticket requests, assign seats, share confirmation emails, and maintain regular communication with the Met Box Office
- Distribute press material to international and national press, including press alerts/releases, photos, videos, and other multimedia assets.
- Work with the Press team in the development of creative story ideas and identifying appropriate media targets and press materials to include but not limited to press releases, alerts for programs, mainstage productions, education/public programs, special events and cast changes.
- Assist with logistics of on- and off-site interviews with Met artists and staff, related to both Met performances and the institution itself.
- Provide daily notifications to performers, production leaders, and union members of upcoming video and still photography shoots (both external and in-house), press attendance at rehearsals, and interviews taking place on premises. Assist with setup and monitoring of such activities.
- Represent the Met at live performances (before, after curtain, and intermissions) to provide critics and press with information and answer questions (approximately two performances per week throughout the opera season).
- Develop relationships with members of the press, artists and artists’ managers, through phone, email, and in-person.
- Perform other duties as assigned.
Skills & Qualifications:
- Bachelor’s Degree or equivalent preferred.
- 1-2 years of experience in public relations, ideally with an arts organization or related agency, preferred.
- Knowledge of today’s opera world and its leading figures.
- Excellent: interpersonal, verbal, writing, editing, and time management skills.
- Ability to exhibit a professional, patient demeanor and understand artistic needs.
- Desire to grow professionally as a Publicist for the in the Performing Arts space.
- Willing to work evenings and weekends, as needed.
$48,000 – $53,000 a year
The Metropolitan Opera believes that diversity is critical to our success and growth as a leading performing arts institution and we seek to recruit, develop and retain the most talented people from a diverse candidate pool. Our goal is to be a diverse workforce that is representative, at all job levels, of the communities we serve.
The Metropolitan Opera is an equal opportunity employer. We are committed to providing an environment of mutual respect where equal employment opportunities are available to all applicants and existing employees without regard to race, color, religion, sex, pregnancy (including childbirth, lactation and related medical conditions), national origin, citizenship status, age, physical and mental disability, marital status, sexual orientation, gender identity, gender expression, genetic information (including characteristics and testing), military and veteran status, or any protected category prohibited by local, state or federal laws.