Audience News Guides Editor

KQED; San Francisco (CA); Hybrid; USD 62,000 - 75,000; Full time

Job summary

KQED in San Francisco is seeking an Audience News Guide Editor who can edit daily stories and longer features, enforce our in-house style, and craft engaging headlines, subheads, captions, and summaries for multiple digital platforms.

This hybrid role requires strong writing, editor collaboration, meticulous fact-checking, and the ability to prioritize under tight deadlines while mentoring junior reporters and contributing to audio and video content.

Qualifications

• Excellent writing and reporting with accurate grammar
• Ability to meet deadlines and manage multiple projects under pressure
• Experience editing and fact-checking in a newsroom or news environment
• Proficiency with AP style and editorial standards across platforms
• Strong collaboration skills and mentoring junior staff

Responsibilities

• Edit daily stories and longer features for KQED.org and other digital platforms
• Craft and edit headlines, subheads, summaries and captions for engagement and SEO
• Fact-check with authors and sources as needed
• Enforce in-house style guidelines and ensure consistent publication quality
• Coordinate with Audience News team and wider newsroom on story strategies
• Mentor interns and contribute to instructional materials for training sessions

Skills

Writing

Editing

AP style

SEO copy

Deadline-driven

Collaboration

Tools

CMS

HTML basics

Adobe Creative Suite

Social media tools

Job description

Title: Audience News Guide Editor

Schedule Format - Location: Hybrid - San Francisco

Pay Information: Hourly - $44.71 to $54.60.

This editor works with many different colleagues in the newsroom and assists in all aspects of online production.

Duties include helping to edit daily stories and longer-form features; assisting in enforcing an in-house style guide; growing familiarity with KQED content, stories and voice; patrolling news content on the website and other digital platforms regularly for accuracy and consistency issues. This editor is skilled at writing engaging and effective display copy such as headlines, sub-headlines, summaries and captions.

The digital editor helps edit and produce news content and fact-checking across digital platforms. This editor will help edit news stories and content for KQED.org, engagement platforms and anywhere else text could possibly live online.

The ideal candidate should also be communicative, collaborative, extremely organized, and able to prioritize under time constraints with grace and accuracy. They should be well accustomed to working for fast-paced publications and should want to thrive in an environment where flexibility and continuous learning are encouraged.

Addendum:

The Audience News Guides Editor is an experienced journalist who has demonstrated knowledge and experience editing and reporting explanatory journalism that makes news events -- and general challenges of daily living -- understandable and accessible to the communities they affect.

This editor will edit stories, usually in the form of guides, delivered by both the Audience News team (including Outdoors reporting) and the wider newsroom. The editor is also expected to report their own stories and guides. Since this is a newsroom role, the editor is also expected to report on breaking news and have a role in developing audio and video content.

This Editor also consults with colleagues across the newsroom on story strategies, and questions about journalistic and editorial standards. They advise other reporters, editors and interns as a mentor and develop instructional materials for intern training sessions.

KQED envisions a public media organization with a culture that centers on human dignity, equity, and belonging. This will enable us to better serve and reflect the Bay Area through diverse and inclusive storytelling.

We value the contributions of marginalized people in society — including Black, Indigenous, and all people of color, people with disabilities, and LGBTQIA+ people — and we believe that these communities must be centered in the work we do, and we strongly encourage members of these communities to apply.

KQED Code of Ethics https://www.kqed.org/about/code-ethics

The mission that drives us:

KQED provide citizens of Northern California with a community-supported alternative to commercial media. We provide citizens with the knowledge they need to make informed decisions; convene community dialogue; bring the arts to everyone and engage audiences to share their stories. We help students and teachers thrive in 21st-century classrooms, and take people of all ages on journeys of exploration- exposing them to new people, places and ideas.

This role will work hybrid between working in KQED's newly renovated headquarters and working remotely.

The successful candidate will be required to join The Screen Actors Guild - American Federation of Television and Radio Artists (SAG-AFTRA).

Essential Functions:

• Assesses editing needs quickly and addresses them efficiently
• Makes sure articles make sequential and logical sense
• Fact-checks with author and sources as needed
• Ensures text is consistent with KQED style guidelines
• Ensures that images and captions are correct
• Writes or edits highly effective headlines and excerpts that are accurate, compelling, engaging and SEO friendly
• Works as assignment editor as part of team rotation, and as needed
• Other duties, as assigned.

Non-Essential Functions:

• Occasionally fills in for other colleagues.
• Represents KQED at events.

Knowledge/Experience Required:

• Excellent communication and writing skills; ability to write quickly and accurately, with an understanding of tone and style across platforms
• Writes text with correct spelling, grammar and punctuation
• Ability to meet deadlines and goals while working under pressure
• At least one year experience in a similar role in a newsroom or news environment
• Experience writing and editing quickly and accurately in English
• Command of AP style
• Experience with copy editing multimedia content such as graphics, interactives or videos
• Proven collaboration skills — which are essential in working with fellow KQED staffers across departments and with partner organizations
• Experience navigating the front and back end of a content management system
• Familiarity with social media and engagement platforms
• Ability to work on their own and as part of a team
• Ability to stay focused, organized and proactive
• Ability to stay organized and prioritize tasks when working on multiple projects at once
• Interest and knowledge in Bay Area news with a focus on local communities
• Checks work before publication and maintains adherence to facts
• Adherence to copyright laws; understanding of media licensing agreements
• Clear communication with colleagues
• Ability to stay focused, organized, communicative and proactive — you’ll be working with a number of journalists or staffers across the organization, potentially dealing with several different editors

Knowledge/Experience Desired:

• Non-English language skills (fluency in Spanish, Mandarin or other widely spoken languages in California)
• Experience with basic HTML
• Familiarity with Adobe Creative Suite
• Experience using social media tools and platforms to maximize reach and impact
• Proven capacity to identify opportunities for stories of high relevance to audiences
• Familiarity with and interest in optimizing language for social media and engagement platforms

NOTE

This job description is not intended to be all-inclusive. Employees may be required to perform other related duties as necessary to meet the ongoing needs of this organization.