Open Campus seeks a race & equity editor

Open Campus is hiring an editor to generate and develop in-depth story ideas about race and equity in higher education across America. This person will lead thoughtful, high-quality coverage in local markets for local audiences and will guide enterprise stories co-published by national outlets.

We’re a national nonprofit news organization that partners with local newsrooms to add dedicated higher education reporters to their communities. You’ll help us strengthen that local network, seeding story ideas, developing tools and resources, and deepening expertise at a time when the role of race in American higher education is at the center of political and policy debates across the country.

In this job, you’ll also oversee our HBCU Student Journalism Network, guiding the professional development of our paid student fellows. The HBCU student journalists who are part of this network cover issues facing the sector as a whole, and their work is co-published by local and national partners.

At Open Campus, you’ll be joining a young, growing newsroom and helping us pioneer a collaborative model for strengthening local news.

Your main job will be to help the reporters in our partner newsrooms produce knowing, in-depth stories about multiple aspects of race and equity in higher ed:

• You’ll seed and sharpen story ideas, helping reporters identify the local impact of national issues and connecting them with expert sources, data, and research to cover the debates happening in their own cities and states.
• You’ll build expertise on the beat and develop resources, tools, and workshops to provide structured support for reporting and writing about these topics.
• You’ll provide editing support to our local partners and amplify the work of our local network through social media and other audience outreach.

You’ll also develop and guide enterprise stories co-published by national outlets:

• You’ll build on Open Campus national distribution partnerships to expand the reach of our reporters’ coverage of race and equity.
• You’ll help spot trends and identify stories that can be reported across newsrooms.
• You’ll work with HBCU student fellows to develop story ideas with a national frame.

And you’ll support editors and student fellows in the Open Campus HBCU Student Journalism Network:

• You’ll oversee the work of the network, suggesting story ideas, sharpening copy, and running workshops and professional development.
• You’ll deepen and expand distribution partnerships with local, regional, and national newsrooms.
• You’ll coordinate operations with part-time editors working with the fellows.

The race & equity editor will report to our editor-in-chief.

Here’s what we’re looking for in a race & equity editor:

• A collaborative editor whose strengths lie in working with people — including students and early-career reporters — guiding, supporting, and inspiring them in their work and careers.
• A journalist with experience in, and passion for, public-policy journalism who can help reporters wrestle with complicated ideas — and then translate them for the rest of us.
• An organized project manager skilled at taking ideas to completion.
• A journalist excited about our mission and working in a small newsroom environment. Collaboration is at our core, so lone wolves won’t be a great fit.
• Higher education expertise is a strong plus.

Salary range: $85,000-$100,000

Interested candidates should apply here by Aug. 18, 2023.

For more information click here.