We’re looking for an M.E. who’s a smart, enthusiastic team player/manager with at least five years daily experience managing journalists — someone perhaps seeking a step up, step down or fresh start in a newsroom creating high-impact local journalism with a distinct absence of internal bureaucracy.
CDN’s managing editor, collaborating with a hands-on executive editor and staff, will be the newsroom quarterback with traditional metro desk-style supervisory duties at a startup-focused publication where or work creates direct community impact.
What you’ll do:
- Work in a collaborative, independent, forward-thinking newsroom: This position is full time in a historic building in downtown Bellingham, Washington. Remote work is not an option.
- Generally, work full time Monday through Friday, but be on call to manage breaking news and supervise staff.
- Oversee newsroom scheduling, deadline editing, story budgeting, meetings, story and project planning.
- Collaborate with Executive Editor on broader coverage goals and staffing strategies.
- Supervise and back up Assistant Editor and Digital Editor, who handle news and photo assignments, print and web design, social media and daily digital newsletters.
- Work with colleagues to ensure sourcing routinely brings nontraditional voices from diverse communities into our coverage.
- Help craft and supervise daily and enterprise coverage that includes local government, schools and businesses; higher education; a port district that serves boating, maritime and fisheries industries; a busy international border; a thriving agricultural community; and three tribal nations, all in the spectacular, environmentally delicate Salish Sea region that includes Puget Sound and the Cascade Mountains. We also enthusiastically cover the local arts and entertainment world and prep, college and recreational sports.
What it will take to be successful:
- Strong, experience-based news judgment and keen sense of public optics.
- Adept people skills to manage a newsroom with a broad range of experiences, ages and approaches.
- Comfort with juggling multiple tasks and projects; firm attention to detail.
- Creative approaches to coverage and story assignments, favoring impact, enterprise and a consumer approach over old-school “beat” worthiness.
- Ability to edit stories quickly and thoroughly with an eye for clarity, fairness and accuracy.
- Instinctual grasp of AP style, and ability to quickly learn our own deviations from it.
- Ability to maintain contact via Slack and other tools when working from home or on location; some flexible scheduling is required.
Required skills and qualifications:
- Five years’ experience in daily newsroom management.
- Prior reporting/writing experience at a daily news publication.
- Impeccable copy-editing and AP Style skills.
- Demonstrated ability to manage, assign, edit and collaborate across the newsroom to cover both breaking news and enterprise projects.
- Ability to pitch in and report and write breaking news when warranted.
- Social media posting competency, both for breaking news and scheduled news blasts via email and other platforms.
- Bachelor’s degree in journalism or related field.
- Working knowledge of common news-industry content management systems. Familiarity with MS Office (Excel, SharePoint), Adobe Suite, Slack and other typical office comms tools.
- Experience with multiplatform newsgathering tools and resources.
- Ability to turn raw analytical readership data into intelligent focus of newsroom resources. (SEO knowledge a plus, but clickbait artistes need not apply; we are a subscription-focused revenue model.)
- Familiarity with the publication’s ethics policy and state and national open-records and open meetings laws.
- Ability to work cooperatively in a team-oriented, multigenerational newsroom.
- Cohabitating senses of adventure and humor. We are serious about our hard work, but have fun doing it.
Beneficial skills and qualifications:
- Design/layout experience for web, digital apps, print newspapers.
- Sprout Social experience is a plus.
- Digital editing (video, audio, basic html) skills.
- Current familiarity with federal and Washington state open records and meetings laws.
- A desire – a full step up from willingness – to mentor young journalists.
Salary: Annual salary of $75K-$85K, depending on experience.
Send a resume, cover letter and access to work samples to Executive Editor Ron Judd, ronjudd@cascadiadaily.com.
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