Senior Editor, LRN, Fall 2021

ProPublica’s Local Reporting Network is helping local and regional news organizations produce the kind of accountability reporting that is so vital for our democracy. We are hiring a senior editor to oversee five projects each year. The selected editor will have the responsibility to guide and edit the work of our local reporting partners, and to collaborate with editors in their newsrooms to envision multi-part projects. As with all our work at ProPublica, the job is ultimately to create compelling investigations that spur change.

Our Local Reporting Network pays the salary and benefits of reporters in local newsrooms around the United States to work on accountability journalism projects that they otherwise wouldn’t be able to undertake. Projects by our partners have received the Pulitzer Prize for Public Service, the Selden Ring Award for Investigative Reporting and top prizes from Investigative Reporters and Editors, the Online News Association, the Society of Environmental Journalists and the Association of Health Care Journalists, among others.

What you would be doing:

• Editing five reporters pursuing year-long projects, each at different newsrooms.
• Working in collaboration with the partner newsrooms to execute stories that can take a variety of forms, from newspaper-style takeouts to magazine, audio and video pieces.
• Coordinating with a team at ProPublica that includes research, data, news applications, engagement, audience development and design to elevate your projects.
• Coaching reporters that range in experience from veteran investigative reporters who have tackled big subjects to newer journalists working on their first large-scale investigation.

We’re looking for someone who:

• Has a track record of landing revelatory stories about abuses of power.
• Aches to tell stories that are both important and powerfully told.
• Has experience with — and an appetite for — collaborating with other newsrooms and journalists from a range of backgrounds. Strong communication skills are key!
• Thinks creatively about all the possible ways we can do journalism nowadays, including deep data-digging, working with readers, marrying narrative and investigative forms and experimenting with multimedia presentations.
• Is comfortable juggling multiple projects and engaging with a range of journalistic forms.
• Has the diplomacy and teaching abilities to help reporters land what is often the most challenging work of their career.

What you should send us:

• The most important part by far is your past work. Send us links to your best stuff. Let us know how your editing shaped and improved the stories. Tell us about any challenges you faced in the reporting or editing of the story/project and how you overcame them. Editing is about far more than moving around words. Show us how you think.
• Your thoughts on a local initiative or project you think we should undertake and how you would approach it. We know you're not necessarily embedded in local reporting now, and that's okay: In reality, Local Reporting Network project ideas are generated by the local partner; with this exercise, we're hoping for a window onto how you think about individual stories and year-long projects.
• Your resume.

We know there are great candidates who may not fit into what we’ve described above or who have important skills we haven’t thought of. If that’s you, don’t hesitate to apply and tell us about yourself.

We are dedicated to improving our newsroom, in part by better reflecting the people we cover. (Here is a breakdown of our staff.) We are committed to diversity and building an inclusive environment for people of all backgrounds and ages. And we are taking steps to meet that commitment. We especially encourage members of traditionally underrepresented communities to apply, including women, people of color, LGBTQ people and people with disabilities.

If all of this sounds exciting to you, you can apply using this form. We will begin reviewing applications on October 18, but we will accept and consider candidates as long as the posting remains open on our site.

This job is full time and includes benefits. ProPublica is based in New York, but we’re open to remote candidates if the fit is right. Applicants must be eligible to work in the U.S. Send questions to talent@propublica.org. No phone calls, please.