Colorado Bureau Editor

The Center Square; Denver (CO); Sur place; USD 70 000 - 110 000; Plein temps

Résumé du poste

The Center Square is seeking a Colorado Editor based in Denver to lead on-state government coverage, edit a reporter, and guide daily journalism with a taxpayers’ perspective. You will own Colorado coverage, supervise freelance contributors, and push content across platforms including video formats.

Ideal candidates will have government reporting experience, strong editing skills, and a passion for watchdog journalism.

Qualifications

• Passionate journalist with government reporting experience
• Strong editing and supervisory skills
• Ability to manage multiple stories and deadlines
• Experience producing video content for multiple platforms

Responsabilités

• Edit and report daily on Colorado government and policy with a taxpayers’ perspective
• Supervise and edit a reporter, manage freelancers, and oversee coverage footprint in Colorado
• Participate in daily editorial planning and strategy execution
• Produce five stories per week while overseeing one reporter to produce 8–10 stories weekly
• Develop story ideas, cultivate sources, and coordinate with West Coast editorial leadership

Description du poste

Big Fish is a boutique recruiting firm specializing in public policy talent, working with nonprofits, trade associations, and corporations to recruit mission-forward talent. To learn more about Big Fish, please visit recruitbigfish.com.

The Center Square has partnered with Big Fish on this search.

For questions or referrals, please contact Angel Fimbres-Barcelo at [e-mail].

Position Title: Colorado Bureau Editor

Employment Status: Full-time

Reports to: Managing Editor (West Coast and Investigations), The Center Square

The Role

The Colorado state Editor is a working editor — hands on the keyboard, eyes on the region, judgment always engaged, and winning the day, every day.

Colorado is the assignment. You and a Denver-based reporter will own our coverage footprint in the state, with particular focus on state government, Denver and Colorada Springs, and the statehouse activity and statewide and local policy developments that radiate from it. We need someone who is competitive, and wants to be first with the mission-focused stories that matter.

You’ll supervise and edit one reporter still to be recruited and hired, report and write daily on issues important to taxpayers, manage freelance contributors, and ensure our coverage across the state is sharp, timely and mission-focused every single day.

You’ll participate in daily editorial planning, execute against short- and long-term coverage strategies, and push our content across multiple platforms. You’ll also promote our work to media partners in the state — because great journalism that nobody reads isn't journalism, it’s a diary.

Producing regular video content to distribute along multiple platforms also is vital to the job. The Center Square’s video strategy includes participating at least weekly in a daily live video show that promotes The Center Square’s expansive coverage of taxpayer-focused journalism across the U.S., recording interviews at the state capitol, city hall and elsewhere.

We're looking for passionate journalists who have government reporting and editing experience, and a strong interest and understanding of politics and public policy. The Center Square covers government from a taxpayers’ perspective, not from government’s perspective. We hold government officials accountable for their actions and decisions and inform our readers how those decisions affect them.

The Expectations of the Role

• Report on legislative and policy issues and their impact on taxpayers in Colorado. The Center Square covers issues from a taxpayer’s perspective, not from government’s perspective. We do original sourcing journalism, not press release journalism.
• Participate in daily planning meetings with other The Center Square journalists on the West Coast.Be a team player who collaborates well with other staffers.
• Work with The Center Square’s West Coast managing editor, who will mentor the editor on good daily journalism practices and on navigating public records and databases to ferret out waste, fraud and abuse.
• Report and write five stories a week while supervising and editing a reporter who will be expected to produce an additional 8 to 10 stories a week.
• Generate relevant story ideas daily, and discuss with managing editor.
• Cultivate trusted sources to provide leads on potential stories, including those inside and outside government, think tanks, academia, and the business community. Build a relevant source base and continue adding to it.
• Monitor the media landscape to identify popular topics and potential media partners.
• Other duties as assigned.

Location

You must live in Colorado, preferably in the Denver region. You can’t cover a state from a thousand miles away and do it well. We need boots on the ground and the ability to get to the state capitol and city hall as needed.

The Center Square is competing for the trust of the American public every day. The Center Square is an equal opportunity employer.