Deputy Politics Editor

Description

Manager, State Government & Politics Content

The AJC’s mission is to be the most essential and engaging source of news and information for the people of Atlanta, of Georgia and the South.  To achieve that mission, we will transform ourselves from a storied daily newspaper into a modern media company.  Where reporters, product ninjas, video/audio masters, digital gurus and much more who are delivering work across diverse creative platforms, industries and borders.

The AJC is seeking a Deputy Politics Editor who has an entrepreneurial spirit and can oversee part of our current award-winning politics team that is the definitive source of information about Georgia politics.  This person is the number two editor and strategic leader on the Politics and State

Government team. You will help maintain the journalistic, ethical and professional standards of our journalism. Responsible for driving results with a multi-disciplined team, ensuring audiences across all platforms are fully served with stories and other journalistic content. He/she is responsible for ensuring, with the oversight of the senior editor, that the team plans coverage, produces original journalism and maximizes the value of each piece of content to meet reader needs. Responsible for guiding work across platforms from social media to Sunday print, driving page views and reader loyalty to ensure business success. He/she must use real-time metrics as well as ongoing research to determine audience interests and needs and provide expert guidance to the team on how to achieve results.

This is a leadership role that helps manage a high-performance team of reporters and editors, supervising some directly and taking overall leadership of the team in the absence of a senior editor. The position requires a high level of journalistic ability, attention to detail in an environment of high risk, entrepreneurial spirit, and the capacity to collaborate effectively and lead and influence across the newsroom.

Duties

• Supervise day-to-day coverage and short and long-range plans and execution of politics and state government coverage.
• Collaborate with other newsroom senior editors and managers to calibrate and coordinate changes in resources, priorities and plans in response to urgent news and emerging priorities.
• Help coach and performance-manage a multi-disciplined, high-achieving team to ever improving results, managing productivity and quality of contributions to AJC journalism. Assist with recruiting and hiring when there are openings.
• Other duties that may vary seasonally or with news cycle, including participation in special project teams, task forces and other activities that contribute to wider leadership of the business enterprise.

Tasks

Supervise day-to-day coverage and short and long-range plans and execution of politics coverage.

• Help lead the strategy and execution for politics coverage, ensuring all audiences are well-served with content.
• Keep up with the news of the team’s coverage area by reading, monitoring external data and consultation with others and sets the agenda through plans communicated to the team.
• Create or direct the creation of content plans for ongoing coverage, special events and breaking news
• Create or direct the creation of a “budget” of stories for collaborative use across the newsroom, communicate and coordinate plans to colleagues.
• Evaluate and edit stories/articles to ensure news value, clarity, readability, comprehensiveness, accuracy, balance and fairness.
• Develop a high level of expertise in the coverage area of the team though reader research, audience analytics, government reports, study of coverage from other organizations
• Establish short-range and long-range coverage plans through various avenues including brainstorming meetings, story meetings with reporters and consultation with leadership colleagues
• Act on and incorporate knowledge from audience metrics and research into the plan.
• Identify opportunities for process improvements.

Collaborate with other newsroom senior editors and managers to calibrate and coordinate high-level changes in resources, priorities and plans.

• Effectively communicate upcoming plans and challenges through written and verbal communication and meetings.
• Adjust priorities and resources according to changing circumstances, sharing resources with other teams when necessary.
• Assist with identifying development opportunities for newsroom at large.

Coach and performance-manage a multi-disciplined, high-achieving team to ever improving results, managing productivity and quality of contributions to AJC journalism. Recruit and, in consultation with senior leadership, hire when openings on the team occur.

• Foster an environment focused on continuous learning and improvement, fostering close-knit collaboration.
• Inspire non-traditional thinking and risk-taking ideas and improvements; inspire team to reach higher for themselves and to participate in newsroom continuous improvement.
• Evaluate the work of team members and identify performance gaps · Address gaps through coaching and inspiration and, when necessary, more formal performance improvement plans · Identify and act on development opportunities for team members.
• Fully embrace the AJC newsroom commitment to diversity and inclusion through recruiting, hiring and development practices
• Assist in recruitment to find quality talent and take a leading role on hiring practices and decisions for team openings.

Other duties that can vary seasonally or with news cycle, including participation in special project teams, task forces and other activities that contribute to wider leadership of the business enterprise.

• Maintain and cultivate relationships with AJC, CEI and CMG partners.
• Identify key community partners and opportunities advance our mission and further relationships with diverse communities.
• Maintain flexibility and embrace growth opportunities outside of core responsibilities.

Education and Experience

• Bachelor’s degree with at least 6 years of experience and at least 1 year of experience in a leadership role. (May have Master’s + 4 years experience, or Ph.D. + 1 year experience, or at least 10 years of experience.)
• Management experience preferred; project leadership or other leadership roles can be considered.
• Bachelor’s Degree in related field is preferred.
• Experience in politics and government coverage, including coverage of state Legislature and Congress.
• Demonstrated strong news judgment and excellent editing ability.
• Demonstrated ability to lead others to follow standards and execute large-scale projects. · Strong ability to organize, analyze, interpret and disseminate information.
• Strong communication and presentation skills required.
• Track record of effectively partnering with different teams across the newsroom and beyond.
• Excellent interpersonal and collaborative skills to work effectively across groups.
• Ability to lead through influence rather than solely through authority.
• A passion for news of all types and an understanding of traditional newsroom culture and the ability to be a change agent assisting in helping people adopt to new processes, systems/procedures, and tools.
• Demonstrated ability to make sound decisions and work with little supervision.
• Ability to work weekend and unusual hours as dictated by news events · Ability to supervise work remotely.

About Cox

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Benefits of working at Cox may include health care insurance (medical, dental, vision), retirement planning (401(k)), and paid days off (sick leave, parental leave, flexible vacation/wellness days, and/or PTO). For more details on what benefits you may be offered, visit our benefits page.

Cox is an Equal Employment Opportunity employer - All qualified applicants/employees will receive consideration for employment without regard to that individual’s age, race, color, religion or creed, national origin or ancestry, sex (including pregnancy), sexual orientation, gender, gender identity, physical or mental disability, veteran status, genetic information, ethnicity, citizenship, or any other characteristic protected by law.

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