Full-Time

NPR seeks a chief business editor

NPR’s Chief Business Editor has overall operational and editorial responsibility for business and economics coverage on all platforms: news magazines, newscast, web, and social media. He/she supervises assignments and provides editorial guidance to a team of business reporters, correspondents and editors across the country. The position also advises NPR shows, including Morning Edition and All Things Considered, and coordinates editorial content closely with the Planet Money podcast team.

This includes preparation of material on all platforms, overseeing the editorial integrity and quality of content, monitoring and evaluating staff performance, recommending new hires and providing editorial support to the Executive Editor.  This position will be responsible for a team and report to the Executive Editor.

Responsibilities

  • Provides overall responsibility for editorial planning and coordination of coverage.
  • Stays ahead of global business and economic news and drives NPR coverage to be the best in class across all digital and broadcast platforms.
  • Maintains internal contacts and partners with the rest of the Network to produce consistently excellent coverage on all platforms.
  • Leads the business reporting team in developing story ideas and producing consistently high-quality business journalism.
  • Ensures that all material aired and published meets the highest journalistic standards and practices, including standards of accuracy, fairness and probity.
  • Has a clearly defined strategy for delivering high-quality NPR journalism to digital audiences.
  • Listens to prepared stories, suggests changes that make pieces concise, coherent, comprehensive and interesting, copy edits stories and writes material as needed.  Determines when a story is ready for air or publication.
  • When necessary, heads team of production staff working on special projects.
  • Supervises assignments and provides editorial guidance to staff, station and freelance reporters and production staff.
  • Works across the Newsroom to determine the best approaches to stories, subjects to be discussed and treated, and individuals to be interviewed.
  • Acts as liaison to shows, desks, Newscast and online.
  • Supervises preparation of air and online material and is responsible for editorial integrity and quality of that material.
  • Tracks station, freelance and staff submissions and assignments.
  • Ensures that speculative submissions from stations and freelancers are auditioned to determine suitability for airing.
  • Regularly has critical discussions about pieces with reporters and editors, and with the Executive Editor, as appropriate.
  • Makes hiring and salary recommendations for staff members under his or her supervision, in consultation with the Executive Editor.
  • Responsible for preparing performance reviews for assigned staff members.
  • Assists in planning and monitoring the business unit’s annual budgets and in monitoring current spending.
  • Coordinates business unit staff schedules, submits and approves time sheets and maintains other personnel records as needed.
  • Responsible for tracking overtime and travel expenditures.
  • Directly supervises other editors; assumes additional workload of other editors when they are away.
  • Cultivate, promote and advance diversity, equity, and inclusion in one’s work and in the workplace.
  • Demonstrated awareness of intersectional identities and ability to collaborate with people from diverse backgrounds.

The above duties and responsibilities are not an exhaustive list of required responsibilities, duties and skills. Other duties may be assigned, and this job description can be modified at any time.

Minimum Qualifications

    • A minimum of 15 years’ experience as a news reporter or editor, including demonstrated experience covering business and economics such as:
      • Investigative stories, including the generation of story ideas and the research and development of such stories.
      • Feature reports, including the development of topics and the organization and presentation of lengthy articles or programs.
      • Considerable knowledge of business and economics, including, but not limited to: personal finance, innovation, global markets, key industries, technology and manufacturing.
      • Thorough knowledge of news and feature reporting techniques and demonstrated writing ability, across multiple platforms.
      • Demonstrated experience overseeing editorial output for social media and digital platforms.
      • Demonstrated collaborative approach to newsgathering and story presentation across platforms.
      • Considerable skill in both news and feature editing.
      • Demonstrated skill in oral presentation.
      • Understanding and use of principles of effective management.
      • Thorough knowledge of broadcast writing and audio production.
      • Occasional daily and/or overnight travel may be required.

Preferred Qualifications

      • Broadcast and specifically radio news experience.
      • Previous managerial experience.

EDUCATION REQUIREMENT

    • Bachelor’s degree or equivalent combination of education and work experience.

WORK LOCATION
On-site: This is an on-site role based in 

Washington, DC or New York City.

JOB TYPE
This is a full time, exempt position.

Compensation
Salary Range: The U.S. based anticipated salary range for this opportunity is $175,000 – 196,450.00 plus benefits. The range displayed reflects the minimum and maximum salaries NPR expects to provide for new hires for the position across all US locations.

To apply, go here.

Chris Roush

Chris Roush was the dean of the School of Communications at Quinnipiac University in Hamden, Connecticut. He was previously Walter E. Hussman Sr. Distinguished Professor in business journalism at UNC-Chapel Hill. He is a former business journalist for Bloomberg News, Businessweek, The Atlanta Journal-Constitution, The Tampa Tribune and the Sarasota Herald-Tribune. He is the author of the leading business reporting textbook "Show me the Money: Writing Business and Economics Stories for Mass Communication" and "Thinking Things Over," a biography of former Wall Street Journal editor Vermont Royster.

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