The Bellingham Herald is seeking a creative, collaborative senior editor who will be responsible for handling the newsroom’s content, strategy, personnel and experimentation.
The ideal editor will have the story-identifying and story-writing skills of a great writer or editor; the reader-engagement skills of a strong social media editor; the statistical knowledge of an analytics expert; and the coaching skills of a great leader.
As senior editor, you will ensure that The Bellingham Herald’s journalists produce unique, audience-focused coverage consistent with McClatchy’s longstanding mission of independent, essential local news that serves the public. We are seeking a leader with strong communication skills who can move quickly and creatively to drive engagement at all levels of the organization.
The ideal candidate should be comfortable juggling and shifting priorities throughout the day. This is a hands-on position with heavy editing and coaching responsibilities. The editor in this position should be eager to collaborate with colleagues throughout the organization and across McClatchy’s Northwest newsrooms.
A key requirement of the senior editor role is to serve as the face of the newsroom in the community, including developing relationships and building community support.
This editor will be expected to utilize digital analytics to the newsroom’s benefit while understanding some key nuances. You should be comfortable analyzing story performance, identifying audiences and how we reach them, and collaborating with other teams to distribute that content to multiple platforms.
Core competencies:
- The proven ability to lead, inspire, and convey knowledge to others and to work effectively with a wide range of colleagues in managing change.
- Skill and versatility as an editor and a writer, including the ability to shape everything from breaking news briefs to longform pieces in a way that best serves and engages our audiences.
- Excellent news judgment and a demonstrated ability to “see the story” that is going to matter to readers and to anticipate reader interests.
- The ability to articulate and reinforce standards for ethics and professional conduct as well as journalistic excellence.
- The ability to solve problems, innovate and adapt in service of the primary goal, which is to produce quality, innovative journalism that reaches and engages readers and subscribers and has an impact.
Requirements:
- Bachelor’s degree or equivalent experience in journalism
- At least 3-5 years of newsroom experience, with at least 1 year of that being in a leadership role.
- Fluency with analytics and how to apply them.
- A way with headlines and an understanding of what works well on different platforms.
- Good working knowledge of SEO practices.
- A proven record of driving readership through Facebook, Twitter and other social media platforms.
The anticipated base pay range for this position is between $90,000 and $100,000 annually.
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