Phoenix New Times is a journalistic icon in Arizona’s capital city, with a long track record of bringing the heat on hard news and covering the city’s vibrant culture and food scenes. Now we’re looking for an editor-in-chief to lead our talented staff, continue New Times’ proud tradition of hard-hitting local reporting, and take the newsroom to the next level of digital-first journalism.
Successful candidates will have a well-honed story sense; significant experience in hard news and investigative reporting; experience managing a newsroom with the ability to support, manage and motivate creative personnel; and an appreciation for the adrenaline rush of daily digital journalism.
This position is based in our Phoenix newsroom. Remote candidates will not be considered. The salary range for this position is $90,000-$100,000 and includes a comprehensive benefits package with medical, dental, retirement, sick days, paid time off, and more.
Phoenix New Times is weekly in print, and daily online. Always free.
Who You Are
- Significant editing and personnel management experience is a prerequisite for this position. Ideal candidates will have at least eight years of newsroom experience with at least four years of full-time experience managing journalists and editing breaking, daily and enterprise stories.
- A working knowledge of — or eagerness to immerse yourself in — the character, people, politics and culture of Phoenix and the Valley.
- A curious person interested in learning about our coverage areas and who stays current on Phoenix and topics related to our coverage areas, including politics, public health, criminal justice, cannabis, government, environment, music, arts and culture, and more.
- A journalist with a track record of crafting breaking stories on deadline with crisp writing and the ability to tell stories about people impacted by what you’re covering.
- Strong interpersonal and communication skills, both written and verbal.
Key Responsibilities
- Manage a diverse newsroom — editors, writers and freelancers. Our stories range from breaking news and trending topics that need to be written quickly to enterprise, investigative or feature stories that could take a week or more to report.
- Manage the newsroom’s budget, productivity, and performance.
- Ability to strategize on content, reading data analytics to understand what our readers want to read about, and inspire an editor to make content changes as needed if readership is dropping.
- This position reports to the Editorial Director, and works closely with the Editorial Director and the Editorial Operations Director on budgets, performance, and newsroom management.
- Work with the Audience Development Director to ensure SEO best practices are implemented across the newsroom in each story, and trending news is being covered in a timely manner.
- Work with the Membership Director on the newsroom’s membership program that is made up of readers who give to support our newsroom (and get cool perks).
- Oversee and work with the Phoenix New Times Art Director on the weekly print product, special issues, and online visuals.
- Efficiently edit stories for structure, line editing and copy editing so they read beautifully, clearly and concisely and are free of factual and grammatical errors and typos. Ensure that care has been given to the best possible use of headlines, photography and art.
- Meet with editors and reporters on a weekly basis to discuss story ideas, cover story selections, and any other items that should be discussed with staff, such as performance toward goal.
- Coach editors and reporters through any part of the pitching, reporting, writing, editing or production process. Deliver feedback to them on their work.
- Maintain regular contact with freelancers and recruit new freelancers as needed.
- Build broad and diverse relationships so that sources, story ideas, research and reporting reflect the diverse communities of the Valley.
Our commitment to Diversity, Equity and Inclusion
Phoenix New Times believes our journalism will best serve our communities with culturally diverse staff and freelancers who offer a range of voices. We are committed to creating and sustaining an environment of inclusion, diversity, empowerment and equality. We are at our best when all our team members are respected and included regardless of race, age, ethnicity, religion, gender identity, disability, sexual orientation and national origin. Women, veterans, people with disabilities, people of color and gender-nonconforming candidates are highly encouraged to apply.
Think you’ve got what it takes? Email a cover letter explaining your philosophy of editing and managing newsroom personnel, along with a resume and links for up to three stories you reported or edited (along with a few sentences explaining the backstory of each piece and your role with it) to PHX-editor-in-chief@voicemediagroup.com.
