Senior Editor, Watchdog

Job Description

Position Summary:

As senior editor of our watchdog team, you will lead a small team of experienced reporters with the mandate to hold local government and powerful institutions to account. And there’s a lot of ground to cover in Southern California, where cutbacks across the news industry have left much of the region unwatched by journalists.

Because of that, we’re keeping the focus wide: from major L.A. law enforcement agencies to county government to workplace safety and the continuing housing and homelessness crises. The team will include a reporter focused on transportation, two government accountability reporters and additional newsroom resources.

As senior editor, you’ll shape ideas, deepen reporting and look for creative ways to tell stories across multiple platforms: radio, digital, social, video, on-demand and live events. You’ll be an advocate for collaborating with other newsrooms and the communities we cover, and partner directly with LAist’s general assignment and beat reporters as needed.

The senior editor should bring a track record of reporting, writing, and editing in-depth enterprise or investigative stories that reveal wrongdoing and injustice. You should have an interest and aptitude in analyzing data and guiding others on public records requests. This will be a quick-paced team with a goal of producing no fewer than 12 stories each month.

LAist is a leading practitioner of engaged journalism. We believe engaging with our audience throughout the reporting process can result in coverage that better reflects and listens to the concerns of our audience. We also believe community members know things that can lead us to groundbreaking work if we’re talking with them regularly.

LAist reporters and editors work closely together and highly value collegiality and a sense of humor, especially under pressure.

Please include a cover letter that links to your best work and describes the role you played in that work, what you learned along the way, and what you’d bring with you to the LAist newsroom.

Expected Compensation Range: $120,000 - $124,000 per year. The exact salary rate is determined by experience and education related to the role, organizational compensation structure, and internal equity.

Location: Hybrid, Pasadena, CA

Application Process: Applicants must be authorized to work for ANY employer in the U.S. We are unable to sponsor or take over sponsorship of an employment Visa at this time.

Application Deadline: Open until filled. 

Position Responsibility:

• Oversee high-impact investigations and daily enterprise reporting that betters the lives of Southern Californians, producing 12 stories or more per month from your team.
• Develop and execute cross-platform strategies for your assigned beats that reflect LAist’s mission to deliver distinctive and unique content to our audiences.
• Work with the engagement team to learn and uphold best practices for creating content that emphasizes an audience-first approach.
• Develop strategies to diversify sources and, in cooperation with the engagement team, establish new relationships with readers, listeners, and other stakeholders.
• Assign and edit daily stories, special projects, and other content for accuracy, fairness and inclusivity across broadcast and digital platforms.
• Provide clear guidance, feedback and supervision to assigned staff.
• Participate in, and sometimes lead, training sessions for the LAist newsroom.
• Embrace LAist’s digital strategy and partner with senior leaders to make data-informed decisions.
• Encourage creativity and high standards.
• Work with direct reports to develop short- and long-term goals.
• Represent LAist at public events.
• Other duties as assigned.

Reporting To This Position:   Watchdog reporters

Physical Demands and Working Conditions:

• Must be able to perform the essential duties of the position with or without reasonable accommodation
• Physical Demands:
  • Required to move about in an office environment and sit for extended periods of time
  • Required to move about in the community
  • Frequent use of hands for data entry/keystrokes and simple grasping.
• Working Conditions:
  • Moderate noise level

LAist (LAist 89.3/LAist.com/LAist Studios) is diverse in race, ethnicity, language, culture, social class, national origin, religious and political belief, age, ability, gender, gender identity, and sexual orientation in addition to other markers protected by law.  

At LAist, we strive to create an inclusive environment where we all feel pride in who we are and what we do. We are encouraged to show up as we are – always embracing and recognizing that our diversity is what brings us together. Our fundamental commitment to diversity:  

• Enriches LAist and provides an atmosphere in which all human potential is valued 
• Promotes learning through interactions among people of different backgrounds and many perspectives, and  
• Enables the organization to prepare all employees to promote social responsibility, equity, freedom, and productive citizenship in a global society 

All qualified applicants will receive consideration for employment without regard to race, color, religion, sex, age, national origin, protected veteran status, disability status, sexual orientation, gender identity or expression, marital status, genetic information, or any other characteristic protected by law.   

We are committed to hiring a breadth of diverse professionals and encourage you to apply. 

Job Requirements

Required Education and Experience:

• Bachelor’s degree or equivalent work experience.
• Five years reporting or editing experience, with two years editing or equivalent experience.
• Minimum of two years supervisory experience.
• Experience in maintaining high journalistic standards under deadline pressure, including standards of accuracy and fairness.
• Experience assigning stories and editing copy.
• Experience with digital news production and presentation.
• Experience covering government or experience editing local, state or federal government beat stories

Required Skills, Knowledge and Abilities:

• Strong writing and editing skills are essential.
• Knowledge of radio, digital, and print style.
• Ability to make decisions on deadline, direct coverage and communicate effectively with colleagues and supervisors.
• Ability to effectively execute multiple assignments on deadline.
• Leadership and personnel skills and ability to develop high-performing teams.
• Ability to consistently work well with others and to inspire and lead the staff.
• Strong communication skills.
• Ability to develop complex story ideas that provide analysis and add context.
• Ability to recognize and act on opportunities for tapping audience expertise.
• Well-established contacts and knowledge of the journalism community.
• Commitment to public service journalism.
• Communicate effectively and cordially with colleagues across platforms.
• Juggle multiple projects and deadlines.

Preferred Skills and Experience:

• Experience producing and editing audio.
• Experience producing and editing video.
• Fluency in Spanish or other languages commonly used in Southern California.
• Experience as a reporter, producer or editor in L.A. or Orange County.

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