Company Profile

Company Description:

What we’re looking for:

Boyle Heights Beat is seeking a senior level editor who can lead and direct our news team in multiple platforms.

The senior local editor will manage a community newsroom of 3 full-time reporters, that is the primary news source for Boyle Heights and East LA, producing community-centered news and features for our bilingual English and Spanish website, social media, podcast, and quarterly newspaper. Building on Boyle Heights Beat’s nationally recognized work, the editor will execute a content strategy prioritizing local impact and public service. They will also work closely a high school student journalism program pioneered by Boyle Heights Beat, which trains and pays local youth to do high-quality reporting on their neighborhoods.

The Boyle Heights newsroom will serve as a blueprint for bringing more hyperlocal coverage to more communities in Los Angeles. The senior local editor will play an instrumental role in coaching editorial staff ensuring that the successes of Boyle Heights Beat remain grounded in the needs of their local constituencies.

The successful candidate will have strong news judgment, a passion for local news, and a commitment to storytelling.

Who We Are:

Founded in 2010, Boyle Heights Beat began as a youth-led project with high school students trained by professional journalists to report on their community. “Por y para la comunidad” has always been our guiding direction and purpose. While developing and training youth to become community journalists is still one of our priorities, our newsroom has since grown to include professional community journalists and multimedia producers, and we’ve become a trusted primary news source for our neighborhood. We are committed to local news reporting, and engaging with and uplifting voices from the neighborhood. Boyle Heights Beat prioritizes community engagement and input in our approach.

Responsibilities:

•Lead the editorial leadership team serving Boyle Heights and East LA, helping plan and execute coverage across platforms and develop new approaches for cross-platform reporting.
•Set measurable targets for journalistic impact and local audience engagement, and guide your local news teams to achieve them.
•Create and develop weekly news budgets and maintain an editorial calendar for Boyle Heights Beat.
•Lead weekly editorial meetings and work with other news staff and student mentors to determine the assignments of the day.
•Maintain a news calendar and be involved in long-term planning.
•Edit web stories, radio scripts, and newsletters.
•Provide clear guidance, feedback, and supervision to assigned staff, as well as high school reporters.  
•Work with other members of the team to provide strong, consistent leadership.
•Supervise, train, and manage direct staff through coaching, mentorship, performance meetings, and ongoing feedback. 
•Help to cultivate and support a network of community/freelance reporters
•Foster a creative and productive work environment. Create development opportunities and individualized development plans for staff and training to enhance skills and foster growth.
•Understand and integrate our promise to practice diversity, equity, and inclusion in how we assign, report, edit, produce, and distribute our journalism.
•Represent the newsroom internally and externally.
•Other duties as assigned.

Required Education and Experience:

•Bachelor’s degree in Journalism or related field or equivalent work experience.
•Ten years of experience in journalism, three years editing or equivalent experience, including experience managing the work of others. 
•Experience reporting or editing in Southern California preferred.
•Experience in maintaining high journalistic standards under deadline pressure, including standards of objectivity, balance, and fairness.
•Some experience providing work direction or supervisory experience.
•Experience assigning stories and editing copy.
•Experience with digital news production and presentation.

Required Skills, Knowledge and Abilities:

•Strong news judgment
•Strong writing and editing essential
•Knowledge of styles for digital and radio 
•Demonstrated ability to make decisions on deadline, direct coverage and communicate effectively with colleagues and supervisors
 •Ability to handle multiple assignments on deadline
•Strong leadership and personnel skills 
•A commitment to principles of diversity, equity and inclusion
•Ability to work well with others and to inspire and lead the staff
•Passion for building community relationships through networking and social media 
•Ability to use community engagement tools/methods, crowdsourcing and digital news-gathering techniques, including curation and aggregation.
•Knowledge and experience with WordPress or similar website platform
•Commitment to public service journalism.
•Understanding of metrics, social media and SEO strategy

Preferred Skills and Experience:

•Fluency in Spanish
•Experience working with diverse communities
•Audio reporting/editing and podcast production experience
•Knowledge of the Eastside of Los Angeles

What we provide:

The salary for this opportunity will be $100,000-$110,000 annually. Exact salary is determined by experience and education related to the role, organizational compensation structure, budget and internal equity. Boyle Heights Beat provides medical and dental benefits, life insurance and a 401K with matching up to 4%.

We are an expanding and collaborative newsroom, successfully creating a new model for sustainable community journalism. We are committed to reflecting and serving our community and encourage members of underrepresented communities to apply. If interested, please send a resume and cover letter to kris@boyleheightsbeat.com.