Senior Editor, Education

U.S. News & World Report is a multifaceted digital media company dedicated to helping citizens, consumers, business leaders and policy officials make important decisions in their lives. We publish independent reporting, rankings, data journalism and advice that has earned the trust of our readers and users for nearly 90 years. Our platforms on usnews.com include Education, Health, Money, Travel, Cars, News and 360 Reviews.

We reach more than 40 million people monthly during moments when they are most in need of expert advice and motivated to act on that advice directly on our platforms. Our signature franchises include our “Best” series of consumer guides on colleges, graduate schools, hospitals, diets, cars, financial services and more. These guides provide an easy-to-digest list for consumers to better understand and compare when making their decisions. We continue to publish annual guides of the authoritative Best Colleges and Best Hospitals rankings on our website and in print. And our U.S. News Live flagship conferences highlight important national conversations including Healthcare of Tomorrow and Healthiest Communities.

Your role in helping us shape the future:

U.S. News empowers everyone to thrive. In this position, you will use your strengths and skills to edit education advice content for consumers that covers a wide range of higher education topics, as well as editorial content that covers our education rankings, including Best Colleges, Grad Schools, Online Programs and Global Universities.

You’ll work closely with the managing editor of education on our content strategy in the education space, which includes creating content that helps people make decisions about choosing a college, getting into college, paying for college, financial aid, selecting a college major, graduate school and earning a degree abroad. You’ll recruit and manage freelance writers; edit articles, slideshows and blogs; occasionally write articles; help curate and edit our twice-monthly newsletters, “Extra Help: College Admissions,” and “The Bottom Line: An MBA Applicant’s Guide”; and use analytics tools to monitor the performance of our content.

You’ll also work with our communications team to promote our content on social media and with other media outlets. There are opportunities to serve in a spokesperson capacity if you are comfortable being interviewed by TV, radio and online outlets to talk about our data, methodology, rankings results, trends and content. You might also moderate education webinars and serve in a spokesperson capacity for various other U.S. News Education events.

In this role, you’ll manage and lead a team of freelance writers and contributors. You’ll also work closely with digital producers, SEO experts, rankings data analysts, and product and business team members to deliver helpful and actionable advice content to our readers and ensure our content aligns with our business strategy. The Senior Editor reports to the Managing Editor of Education.

Are you up to the challenge?

You should be a nimble editor who is skilled at juggling several tasks at once, can help drive the editorial coverage in the education space, and can lead a team of talented contributors. As part of the job, you’ll:

Work with the managing editor to help oversee and develop our content strategy for a consumer audience of parents and students who need help choosing a school, getting into school and paying for tuition, identifying topics and areas of coverage.
Recruit and manage freelance writers with expertise in the education space, assign articles, and approve invoices.
Work with experts in the student loans, medical school, law school and college admissions spaces to occasionally write content and expert review content for our site.
Edit articles, slideshows and other content for flow, consistency, tone, audience, brevity, accuracy and SEO.
Employ SEO best practices to determine topics to cover and optimize content for search.
Use Google Analytics to monitor performance of content and inform decisions - ensure our content is positioned to support our consumers and the business strategy.

Please submit a resume and cover letter for consideration.

Requirements

You should definitely have:

5+ years of professional editing experience at a media company or education publication
Experience writing and editing higher education content
Experience recruiting and managing freelance writers and editors
Experience employing SEO best practices and using SEO tools to inform content strategy decisions
Ability to prioritize assignments and meet deadlines
Expertise and prior experience using AP style
Experience with traffic analytics tools like Google Analytics
Excellent communication and organization skills
Ability to collaborate with multiple teams
Journalism or related degree or equivalent experience

It would be nice if you had:

Experience building and optimizing newsletters
Experience with project management
Experience using Google Docs and Sheets
Prior experience editing and publishing content in a CMS
Familiarity with SEMRush
Comfortability with media interviews and spokesperson opportunities

What it’s like to work with us:

Talent is our best asset!
We invest in people with passion and potential who understand U.S. News’ dedication to our consumers.
Entrepreneurial, mission-driven culture with core values of quality and integrity
Focus on fostering personal and professional growth
Competitive benefits including paid vacation time, medical, tuition reimbursement, and training
Collaborative Work Environment ~ Fun, diverse, inclusive and ambitious co-workers

Other Job Info:

These statements are intended to describe the general nature and level of work being performed by employees assigned to this job. This is not intended to be an exhaustive list of all responsibilities, duties, and skills required of employees assigned to this job.

U.S. News & World Report strongly encourages all employees to be fully vaccinated (including boosters).

In New York City, the anticipated base salary for this position is $60,000 to $95,000. The actual base salary offered will depend on a variety of factors, including without limitation, the qualifications of the individual applicant for the position, years of relevant experience, level of education attained, certifications or other professional licenses held, interview performance, and if applicable, the location in which the applicant lives and/or from which they will be performing the job.