Assistant Regional Managing Editor

The Gulf States Newsroom is seeking an editor with strong communication and collaboration skills to guide coverage and help lead an awesome team of reporters. Over the past three years, the Gulf States Newsroom, a collaboration among public radio stations in Mississippi, Louisiana, Alabama, plus NPR has established itself as a team that illuminates issues in the Deep South and amplifies underrepresented voices. We track shifts in the region, from the expansion of dollar stores, to the rise of collegiate women's wrestling, and efforts to train a new generation of Black farmers. We follow up with communities to shed light on widely-relevant issues like disaster recovery and high utility bills.

The assistant managing editor is an essential part of that coverage. We need a self-starter who can juggle multiple tasks, give thoughtful feedback and come up with creative systems and solutions as the newsroom continues to expand. You will work with the managing editor and digital editor to expand community engagement initiatives and experiment with ways to further the reach of our stories to new audiences. You'll help to lead an awesome team of beat reporters covering health equity, criminal justice, economic mobility, environmental justice, sports and culture across the three states. Our reporters are primarily responsible for enterprise feature reporting, rather than quick-turn dailies.

When reporters come to you with a big or vague idea, you'll guide them to narrow it into a clear pitch and create an actionable reporting plan. You push them to step past press releases and breaking news to identify stories that prioritize the people most impacted by the issues. You work with reporters to edit audio stories from start to finish. You work hand-in-hand with the digital editor to make stories shine on all platforms. You can discern and balance patience and decisiveness. You also editor also works with local editors and reporters at partner newsrooms to identify coverage and collaboration opportunities.

Who We Are: The Gulf States Newsroom is a partnership between WWNO in New Orleans and WRKF in Baton Rouge, WBHM in Birmingham, Alabama, Mississippi Public Broadcasting in Jackson, and NPR. We're working together as a regional newsroom to plan coverage, share resources and add reporting power in a story-rich region where too many local news outlets have disappeared. It's part of NPR's Collaborative Journalism Network, an initiative designed to better connect NPR with local member stations to tell the story of the whole country from everywhere in the country.

Check out our stories here. For behind-the-scenes insights, check out the Gulf States Newsroom Medium where editors and reporters share insights. All Gulf States Newsroom team members are employed through WBHM, the lead station of the collaborative based at the University of Alabama at Birmingham (UAB) and this role is eligible for those university benefits.

Salary Range: $60,835 - $72,000

Qualifications:

Bachelor's degree in Journalism, Communications, Liberal Arts or a related field and five (5) years of related experience required. Work experience may NOT substitute for education requirement.

Preferred Qualifications:

At least seven (7) years of journalism experience
A proven track record of reporting or editing original, enterprise stories
Excellent communication and organizational skills, and demonstrated writing ability
Ability to handle multiple complex projects simultaneously and to adapt to changing priorities/conditions
Experience incorporating audience and community engagement into the fabric of the story process
Experience in a collaborative news environment
Experience with podcasting and longform storytelling
Familiarity with audio storytelling and the public media system
Experience with investigative reporting and data journalism
Experience reporting or editing in the South
Ability to speak a language besides English