Education Editor
Salary $60,000
We’re launching an ambitious and impactful project in the Central Valley that will focus on improving educational outcomes for local students. We’re searching for an editor to lead the project.
Education is a key driver of economic mobility everywhere, and especially in the Central Valley, where the gap between rich and poor families continues to grow at a faster rate than elsewhere in the state. How do we change the trajectory and quicken the pace of advancement in educational outcomes? We will do so with your help.
As Education Editor, you will serve as a leader for a team of three reporters. You also will serve as a bridge for key stakeholders, parents, students, readers and The Bee’s news reporters, videographers and editors. You’ll help build new communication channels for important reporting, including a newsletter and in-person gatherings. You will be tied into which local efforts are working and will make story suggestions to the reporting team. You will co-host quarterly webinars with readers and the project’s supporters. You will track and share policy and process changes brought about as a result of the team’s work.
You will have daily editing experience and will coach two education reporters and one engagement reporter on relevant storytelling techniques. This editor will also be responsible for ensuring our collaborative efforts reach targeted audiences with the development and execution of content distribution plans across multiple platforms and geographic areas in the Central Valley, principally in Fresno. The successful candidate will use audience data and proven best practices to drive decision making. He or she will be curious, asking questions of reporters and readers at every opportunity and seeing story ideas around each corner.
This team has the potential to contribute to improved economic and quality of life outcomes in the Central Valley, and the Editor is key to its success.
The Education Editor will report to the Executive Editor in Fresno. It is a two-year position, with potential to discuss future opportunities in Fresno and/or McClatchy. A bilingual editor (Spanish and English) is a significant plus.
Requirements:
- Two to four years of editing experience
- Ability to act as a proxy for our readers, asking the questions they want answered
- Ability to network, and establish effective community partnerships
- Understanding of metrics, and the ability to discuss in public what they mean
- The ability to lead, direct, collaborate with and coach colleagues both on her or his team and beyond.
- Strong editing skills and excellent news judgment.
- Strong interpersonal skills, including empathy and a superior ability to listen.
- Comfort with a job that will be demanding, fast-paced, constantly evolving, and more outcome-oriented than task-oriented.
- Ability to say no when stories are too incremental, lack value or otherwise don’t meet our standards
- An interest in and aptitude for storytelling using a broad range of media, including the written word, video, photography, podcasts and other audio, and whatever comes next.
- Excellent journalism ethics