Service Journalism Editor

McClatchy is seeking a Service Journalism Editor to join the award-winning newsrooms of The Kansas City Star and The Wichita Eagle to lead our service journalism and high-utility reporting team. This role is based in Kansas City but will work with reporters in both Kansas and Missouri.

Among this editor’s priorities are helping to ensure our service journalism team’s local and statewide stories and videos are useful and essential, and that we are meeting our readers' curiosity and informational needs.

The team is driven by readership growth and loyalty strategies, and uses tools such as Google Trends and surveys to surface and answer questions readers are asking at the moment. Story topics may include explaining a city’s new food compost laws, fact checking a local official or polling readers for the best pizza in town.

We have fun, and we write on the news. Here are just a few of the team’s stories:

KC area hospital sees more COVID patients. What to know about new variants and booster

Going to Beyoncé in Kansas City? Here’s what you can bring inside Arrowhead Stadium

More than 2,000 Wichita customers could have water service cut. Here’s why

A rare ‘ring of fire’ solar eclipse is coming. How will it look from Kansas and Missouri?

The ability to collaborate is also a must, as this editor communicates with colleagues across newsrooms and within McClatchy’s News Audience Initiatives team. This role reports to the Service Journalism Editor for McClatchy’s West Region.

What you'll bring:

Daily execution of audience-focused strategy, fueled by a team of reporters working across multiple storytelling platforms.

Coordinate story assignments, in collaboration with service journalism and newsroom editors, informed by search interest, social conversations and engagement journalism.

Have excellent news judgment and journalism ethics.

Have a passion for editing and writing, as well as video, audio and graphics.

Demonstrate speed, competitiveness and SEO savvy through aggregating and storytelling tools.

Work well in a team environment.

Skills needed:

Experience with audience tools such as Google Trends.

Familiarity with analytics tools, such as Parse.ly or Chartbeat.

Ability to understand audience metrics and the tactics that move them.

Education & experience:

College degree or equivalent work experience.

At least 3 years of local news experience; editing and leadership experience is a plus.