News Assistant

The New York Times•New York, NY

1d•$67,626 - $68,000•Onsite

About The Position

The New York Times is seeking a news assistant to work in a floater role that will involve learning several different news assistant jobs throughout the newsroom. Floaters fill in on various jobs to cover other employees’ vacations, leaves and other types of time off, as well as filling in on night or weekend jobs that don’t have a regularly assigned news assistant. The ideal candidate will be a quick learner who is versatile and able to rotate easily from one job to another. Organization and a desire to learn new skills are critical to success in this role. Flexibility is also key as floaters do not have a set schedule; a floater’s schedule varies week to week and will include nights, weekends, and holidays. Schedule changes occur regularly and being cooperative with changes and quickly responsive to calls/emails from Newsroom Operations managers are required.

Requirements

Strong grammar and communication skills
Familiarity with Google Workspace (Google Docs, Sheets, Forms, Slides)
Strong organizational skills
Ability to multitask and prioritize to meet deadlines
Ability to quickly learn and apply new skills

Nice To Haves

B.A or B.S degree
A passion for learning about new tools and journalism formats
Versatile skills in writing

Responsibilities

Assist editors in producing various newsletters and other online content
Handle layout of some parts of our print newspaper
Screen and sort mail, send out newspapers, answer telephone calls and manage other incoming information for the assigned department
Maintain department documents, including spreadsheets and various listservs that contain reliable information of reporter locations
Various proofreading and fact-checking duties
Various audience-related tasks, i.e. SEO and URL verification
For publication in listings, review and confirm background facts for events submitted to The Times, seek out appropriate upcoming events, select events and edit content for space requirements
Determine accuracy of data, correcting apparent errors as needed and calling attention to news developments the material may disclose
Manage desk social media accounts at the direction of editors
Write and/or reword caption information attached to incoming pictures or other material submitted by photographers so that editors can write captions for publication
Gather, prepare and archive content, including, but not limited to, a wide variety of tables, listings, captions, summaries, photos, graphics and other content elements accurately and efficiently, repackaging, reformatting and appending assigned content as needed for immediate publication in any and all media
Helping to maintain varied departmental files and personnel and other office records including work and vacation schedules, timebanks, whereabouts lists and payroll records
Assisting editors and operations managers with processing of freelance and staff payments
Learning and utilizing evolving administrative tools and working with editors and operations managers to help create and apply newsroom policies on the assigned desk