Senior Editor

This position will oversee The Island Packets journalism gathering.

As editor, the successful candidate will ensure that all of our journalism is focused on serving and growing our digital audience.

The ideal editor will have the story-identifying and story-writing skills of a great writer or editor; the reader-engagement skills of a strong social media editor; the statistical knowledge of an analytics expert; and the coaching skills of a great leader. The editor will have the authority to use those talents to shape our journalism from story conception to approach to distribution and promotion to maximize its reach and impact.

This is a hands-on position with heavy editing and coaching responsibilities. The editor will guide the work of every journalist in the newsroom and will work closely with editors and regional teams throughout the Carolinas.

This position reports directly to the regional South Carolina regional editor.

Core competencies:

• The ability to lead, direct, collaborate with and coach colleagues throughout the newsroom.
• Strong editing and/or writing skills and excellent news judgment.
• An interest in the science of readership and engagement, and a zeal for understanding and using readership data to inform the editorial process.
• An interest in telling stories using a variety of media, and an enthusiasm for learning new skills and technologies.
• Strong interpersonal skills, including empathy (toward readers and staff) and a superior ear for tone.
• Comfort with a job that will be demanding, fast-paced, constantly evolving, and more outcome-oriented than task-oriented.
• Ability to develop and implement growth strategies.
• Ability to manage budgets, hire staff, evaluate performance and productivity

Requirements:

• A deep understanding of both the art and the science of audience engagement, ideally including:
• Fluency with analytics and how to apply them.
• A way with headlines and an understanding of what works well on different platforms.
• Good working knowledge of SEO practices.
• A proven record of driving readership through Facebook, Twitter and other social media platforms.
• Experience promoting content through major aggregators (Drudge, Bleacher Report, Real Clear Politics, Fark, Yahoo, etc).
• An understanding of the psychology of online readers generally, and of the motivations and interests of a broad range of potential audiences. The ability to empathize with readers who will encounter our work under a range of different circumstances.
• Skill and versatility as an editor and a writer, including the ability to shape everything from breaking news briefs to longform magazine-style pieces in a way that best serves and engages the broadest possible audience.
• Excellent news judgment, and a demonstrated ability to see the story that is going to matter to readers and to anticipate reader interests before they exist.
• Excellent journalism ethics.
• The proven ability to lead, inspire, and convey knowledge to others, and to work effectively with a wide range of colleagues in managing change.
• The ability to solve problems, innovate and adapt in service of the primary goal, which is to produce journalism that reaches and influences an audience of significant size.

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