Senior News Editor

Lookout Local • Santa Cruz, CA

9h • $90,000 - $110,000 • Onsite

About The Position

The Senior News Editor is the day-to-day editorial leader of Lookout Santa Cruz’s newsroom, working closely with the Executive Editor to produce essential, engaging and ambitious news coverage for Santa Cruz County. This hands-on editing and newsroom leadership role is suited to an experienced journalist who enjoys deciding what matters, developing stories with reporters, shaping coverage, editing stories and ensuring the newsroom delivers a strong report seven days a week.

The Senior News Editor works with reporters and correspondents across beats to balance breaking and timely news, useful service journalism, authoritative beat coverage, and enterprise, investigative and accountability reporting. The role translates broader editorial priorities into daily newsroom work and has substantial ownership of the daily report, workflow and execution, while the Executive Editor retains responsibility for overall editorial strategy and direction.

Lookout Santa Cruz describes its workplace as in-person, in-community, collaborative and collegial. The organization is building a diverse, skilled and mission-driven team committed to learning, growth and community service.

Requirements

• At least 5 years of professional journalism experience, including meaningful experience editing or leading the work of other journalists.
• Demonstrated success as an editor, assignment editor, senior reporter with editing responsibilities or newsroom leader.
• Excellent news judgment and a strong sense of what makes a story important, useful and compelling.
• Strong line-editing and story-editing skills, including the ability to bring clarity, structure and authority to complex stories.
• Experience coaching reporters and helping journalists develop stronger stories.
• Experience working across multiple beats and managing competing daily priorities.
• Demonstrated ability to balance fast-moving daily journalism with longer-term enterprise and accountability reporting.
• Strong organizational skills and ability to keep a newsroom moving in a deadline-driven, seven-day-a-week environment.
• Fluency in digital-first journalism and content management systems such as Newspack or similar.
• A collaborative management style and genuine interest in helping colleagues do their best work.
• Commitment to accurate, fair, independent and community-centered journalism.
• Ability to quickly develop a strong understanding of Santa Cruz County and the communities Lookout serves.
• Comfort working in a small, entrepreneurial newsroom where editors are hands-on and priorities can change quickly.

Nice To Haves

• Experience with enterprise, investigative or accountability journalism.
• Experience with data journalism.
• Bilingual skills, particularly Spanish.
• Audio, video or other multimedia production experience.
• Experience using audience or engagement data to inform editorial decisions.
• Familiarity with Santa Cruz County or another California local news market.

Responsibilities

• Lead the newsroom’s daily editorial operation and work with reporters and editors to set coverage priorities and assignments.
• Help ensure Lookout produces a strong, timely and relevant report seven days a week.
• Run or help lead daily news meetings and maintain an overview of newsroom coverage.
• Decide when to pursue breaking news, follow developing stories or give reporters time and resources for deeper reporting.
• Coordinate coverage across beats and identify opportunities to connect stories and add context.
• Work with the Executive Editor on major coverage priorities and significant news events.
• Edit stories for accuracy, clarity, fairness, strong reporting and compelling presentation.
• Help reporters sharpen story ideas, strengthen reporting plans and identify the questions stories need to answer.
• Develop enterprise, investigative and accountability journalism with reporters alongside the daily report.
• Identify opportunities to build deeper follow-ups and accountability reporting from breaking news and daily coverage.
• Help reporters select suitable formats and approaches for different kinds of journalism.
• Write or edit headlines, decks and other story presentation elements with reader service and engagement in mind.
• Maintain high standards for sourcing, reporting depth and editorial clarity.
• Coach reporters and correspondents in reporting, writing, story development and news judgment.
• Provide clear, constructive and timely feedback, and help journalists develop their skills and take on more ambitious work.
• Foster a newsroom culture of curiosity, collaboration, accountability and continuous improvement.
• Help identify newsroom strengths, opportunities and training needs.
• Work with the Executive Editor and colleagues to understand what journalism is reaching and serving readers.
• Help balance journalism that introduces new audiences to Lookout with distinctive reporting that builds trust and encourages membership.
• Use audience and engagement information as one input into coverage decisions while maintaining independent editorial judgment.
• Help present important journalism in ways that are useful, accessible and compelling to readers.
• Work with reporters to identify community questions, concerns and undercovered stories.
• Help ensure Lookout’s journalism reflects the breadth and diversity of Santa Cruz County.
• Uphold standards for accuracy, fairness, independence and transparency, and maintain consistency and quality across the daily report.

Benefits

• Highly competitive medical, dental and optical benefits.
• 401(k) with matching.
• Good PTO allowances.
• Stock options in the growing company.
• Opportunity to make a significant impact on and contribute to the revival of local journalism.
• Collaborative and mission-driven work environment.
• Opportunity to work directly with an experienced newsroom leadership team and help shape the daily journalism of a Pulitzer Prize-winning local news organization.

What This Job Offers

• Job Type: Full-time
• Career Level: Senior
• Education Level: No Education Listed