The Writing & Editing Chief is the newsroom’s ‘voice of conscience’ when it comes to the quality of the Journal’s writing. He or she recognizes good writing, knows how to make weak writing better and coaches others to do the same.
The Writing & Editing Chief identifies weaknesses and tackles them with broad and focused training. He or she sets copy editing standards, organizes the team of editors, assigns them to copy edit in coverage areas where they can help improve the result, and works with journalists to make them better writers.
Tasks/Responsibilities
Content
- Define, share and enforce quality standards for writing.
- Review published work and provide feedback on the work — quality of text, coherence of packaging — to Coverage Chiefs, bureau chiefs and reporters. Create and drive measures for improvement in each coverage area.
- Review published work and provide feedback to the copy editors about their editing, so as to further growth and improvement.
- Oversee the editors who copy edit story packages, planning their shifts and assigning daily management of their work to coverage areas based on topic expertise and knowledge of the strengths and weaknesses of the coverage area. Manage staff allocation to coverage areas according to workload.
- In collaboration with the newsroom Operations team: Develop training and coaching programs (self-directed, small-group, one-on-one and/or large-group) targeted at reporters, editors at different levels and visual journalists, to improve the quality of our written journalism.
- Manage the Journal’s styleguide, including updates to it and staff understanding of the contents.
- Establish KPIs for story package quality and track our performance against them.
Leadership
- Lead and manage a team of editors and storytelling specialists
- Inspire our journalists to produce their best work on all platforms.
- Contribute by attitude, example and encouragement to a culture of creativity, enthusiasm, motivation, ownership and professionalism.
- Manage, motivate and develop staff to consistently produce high-quality work.
- Set clear objectives for direct reports, cascading effectively down.
- Set agenda and make and articulate clear decisions.
- Set standards for individual and team performance – ongoing and in regular performance reviews.
- Contribute to the shaping and management of staff development programs.
- Identify high-potential members of the team and ensure they are effectively developed.
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