Are you ready to lead an award-winning newsroom in Vermont's largest city? The Burlington Free Press/burlingtonfreepress.com, part of the USA TODAY NETWORK, is looking for a dynamic, digitally focused innovator to be our local managing editor.
The next editor must be a high-impact leader skilled in guiding and supporting frontline journalists in a hybrid newsroom. Burlington, a vibrant city in Vermont, is home to the University of Vermont and the state's largest hospital, as well as active arts and business communities. Situated on beautiful Lake Champlain, Burlington is a highly competitive media market.
The local editor must be dedicated to transparency and accountability, have a keen eye for breaking news, and focus on meaningful enterprise and watchdog stories. They must coach and develop journalists to uncover important news and create stories with context and clarity.
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The successful leader will translate raw audience data into journalistic insights and motivate front-line journalists to pursue their public service mission while advancing our goals. By prioritizing DEI values in every aspect of their work, a local editor will cultivate a high-performing team that reaches beyond traditional newspaper audiences.
The local editor collaborates with producer/planners to ensure a consistent flow of quality stories, visuals and other content, enforce deadlines, and identify opportunities. They must be a hands-on digital leader, effectively use social media and SEO, identify tends garnered from metrics, and occasionally write.
Local editors are part of a team in Gannett's Center for Community Journalism, a nationwide leadership, editing and planning structure supporting small and mid-sized newsrooms. They may work across multiple newsrooms and even across state lines, so curiosity and commitment to remote teams and other communities is essential.
The CCJ and the Free Press follow the same mission: provide timely, factual and relevant information as a public service in local communities. We focus on unique and distinctive reporting on high-interest local topics including food, drink and culture; growth and development; government accountability; people-centered "sense of place" stories; and high school and Division I college sports. CCJ newsrooms succeed by being nimble and recognizing the content that will sustain local journalism for the long haul.
The Local Editor reports to a Group Editor and supervises frontline journalists within the wider context of the CCJ.
Responsibilities:
- Boots on the ground editing for local newsrooms.
- Primary assigning, story vetting, line editing. Managing workflow to meet deadlines.
- Coaching and directly supervising front-line journalists, including regular 1:1s.
- Ensuring steady productivity around high value topics and adjusting as needed.
- Prioritizing DEI values in story selection, sourcing and hiring.
- Being the local face of the news organization for the community where based and ensuring local engagement by frontline journalists in others.
- Helping the staff hone skills in a wide range of storytelling: from real-time digital updates to narrative storytelling, employing alternative story forms and multimedia.
- Using metrics and analytics to determine how to best reach and grow the audience.
- Increasing digital audience and engagement and growing digital subscriptions.
- Assuring daily work is completed on time and efficiently, setting priorities and coordinating with colleagues.
- Receiving assignments in the form of objectives to meet goals; administering company policies that directly affect team members.
- Assigning and editing articles for context, completeness, fairness, accuracy, balance, and adherence to news values. Demonstrating strong news judgment in the selection, prioritization and editing of content.
- Writing effective digital headlines, social media posts, briefs and breaking news alerts that help attract audiences.
- Market leader duties such as office/building administration, compliance and customer service that require hands-on engagement at the local level (with Market Leader Administrators).
- Leading or coordinating coverage when local news attracts a national audience (with Group Editor, Producer/Planners, others).
- Cultivating a recruitment pipeline and screening, conducting first interviews for frontline journalists (with Group Editor, News and Talent Team, Recruiters).
- Reviewing and optimizing beat and topic assignments within local newsrooms (with Group Editor).
- Manage freelancers (with Operations Assistants).
Requirements:
- Bachelor's or master's degree in journalism or related field or an equivalent combination of education and experience.
- 3 to 5 years of relevant management/supervisory experience
- Proven proficiency in applying analytics to content strategy.
- Strong communication and collaboration skills.
- Exposure to deadline-driven environment.
- Exceptional planning and organizational skills.
- SEO knowledge.
- Self-motivation and self-direction.
- Strong line-editing skills.
- Strong people-management skills.
- Strong problem-solving skills.
- Creativity and out-of-the-box thinking.
Application Instructions:
We are eager to learn more about you and how you fit this role. When you apply, don't limit your upload to a resume; show us what you've done. To do so, put together a single document file that includes the following, in this order:
1. Your resume - one to two pages.
2. A cover letter that outlines how you would approach the job.
It is important that these items be assembled into a single document and uploaded in PDF format. Completing these steps will ensure that your application receives the highest consideration.
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