The Wall Street Journal is looking for Strategy Editors to help drive digital journalistic excellence within our coverage areas and ensure that new newsroom initiatives and capabilities are effectively translated into coverage.
The eight new Strategy Editors will report to the Programming Strategy Editor, who reports to the Journal’s Chief News Strategist.
The Strategy unit serves as an incubator for change and experimentation in the newsroom. It consists of a handful of teams that specialize in everything from data science and new formats to reporting for young audiences and broader experimentation. The unit is tightly integrated with the Journal’s product, design and engineering teams. The strategy group, which works closely with news leadership, was set up as a centralized team of forward-thinking leaders to help the Journal move quickly in its digital transformation.
The new Strategy Editors are critically important because they will provide a feedback loop from the Journal’s centralized strategy and visuals teams to the reporters and editors in the field. We are seeking internal and external candidates who have strong backgrounds in reporting and/or editing as well as strong knowledge of multiple mediums and digital-first thinking. These are skills we want to instill in rising leaders, so these roles are a great way to grow and contribute to our future.
In this role, you will be embedded with a particular coverage area and take the Journal’s strategies for digital growth and innovation — as determined by the Chief News Strategist and the Editor in Chief — and implement them across that coverage area. You will meet regularly with the other strategy editors, with the rest of the Strategy unit and with newsroom leaders to provide feedback on how new initiatives are going, bring up ideas from around the newsroom and share learnings.
As a partner with your assigned Coverage Chief, you will work with that coverage area’s deputies, bureau chiefs and reporters to roll out new approaches and create good workflows for communication. At times and depending on your skills, you will also help edit copy, commit code or oversee other news projects coming out of that coverage area.
Responsibilities:
- Provide a bridge between coverage teams and strategy teams
- Provide daily guidance on story performance in the assigned coverage area and participate in story planning, bringing data and other strategic info to bear in real-time
- Identify opportunities for projects to meet the needs of audiences for The Wall Street Journal’s coverage
- Shepherd and edit digitally focused, technologically innovative projects through the planning and publishing process
Requirements:
- Must share excitement for change across the newsroom and want to join a community of editors who are working hard to honor the Journal’s traditions while focusing on digital transformation.
- Must be an accomplished journalist who has worked as a reporter and/or editor for at least 5 years at a news organization.
- Great communication skills and a focus on collaboration.
- Because there will be a number of Strategy Editors, skills sets beyond the above will vary. But we will be looking for experience that goes beyond writing text stories in some combination of the following areas: programming, product management, video or audio production, visual design and digital production.
To apply, go here.
