PEP Archivist

Opportunity

Versant is seeking a PEP Archivist to support the Archive team in researching, maintaining, archiving, restoring, and making media content available for teams across the Versant media landscape. This freelance role serves a broad range of internal and external clients, including show units, promotions and marketing, specials, long‑form programming, digital teams, and Archive Sales operations.

The Archivist/Researcher helps ensure Versant’s media assets are discoverable, accurate, rights‑aware, and available when teams need them. This role supports daily coverage, breaking news, historical research, editorial planning, and long‑term preservation of valuable media content.

This is an onsite role based in New Jersey and requires flexibility to support early mornings, nights, overnights, weekends, holidays, and short‑notice breaking news requests. This role is overtime‑eligible.

• Manage daily archival research requests for shows and teams across the Versant News landscape.
• Research, screen, log, tag, and make available video content for show units, promotions and marketing, specials, long‑form programming, digital teams, and other internal or external clients.
• Fulfill external client requests in support of Archive Sales operations.
• Make archival retention decisions for incoming content and add essential metadata, visual shot lists, transcripts, restrictions, and other required information.
• Partner with Producers and Rights & Clearances to support proper footage use in accordance with Versant Media’s Standards & Practices.
• Coordinate digitization, retrieval, return shipment, storage, and technical support needs for physical and digital media assets, including work with external storage and internal support or engineering teams.

What You Bring

• Bachelor’s degree in communications, journalism, liberal arts, or a related field preferred.
• Demonstrated knowledge of current and historical general and business news, including local and international events, world leaders, and places in the news.
• Strong computer research skills, including experience searching and entering information in database applications.
• Familiarity with media asset management systems and non‑linear editing platforms.
• Ability to handle multiple projects simultaneously and deliver accurate, high‑quality work in a tight deadline environment.
• Strong interpersonal skills, clear communication, and a customer‑focused approach.
• Ability to work both collaboratively and independently as business needs require.
• Flexibility to work early mornings, nights, overnights, weekends, holidays, and short‑notice breaking news coverage as requested.

You’ll also bring Versant’s How We Do It behaviors to the work:

• Trust: You handle media assets, metadata, restrictions, and archival decisions with accuracy, care, and sound judgment.
• Teamwork: You partner effectively with producers, editorial teams, Rights & Clearances, engineering, support teams, external clients, and storage partners.
• Transparency: You communicate clearly about available holdings, restrictions, technical issues, asset status, and research findings.
• Agility: You balance multiple requests, shifting priorities, breaking news needs, and tight deadlines in a fast‑paced archive environment.
• Entrepreneurial Spirit: You take initiative to anticipate archival needs, improve discoverability, and learn new tools and workflows.

Bonus points for 3+ years of experience in an archival or library setting, experience logging and researching archival material, or knowledge of AVID Media Composer, Interplay, Media Central Cloud UX, Stratus, and iNews.

You’ll be part of a fast‑paced media environment where research, journalism, technology, and preservation come together every day. This freelance PEP role offers the opportunity to support high‑impact news, business, entertainment, sports, digital, promotional, and long‑form content needs while helping teams access and use Versant’s media assets responsibly.

This role is based onsite in New Jersey and requires flexibility to support business needs, including early mornings, nights, weekends, holidays,…