Director of Experimentation & Projects

Hearst; Dallas (TX); On-site; USD 120,000 - 180,000; Full time

Job summary

The Dallas Morning News seeks a Director of Experimentation and Projects to lead innovation in our award-winning newsroom. This senior editor will drive experiments in storytelling and audience growth while managing long-term projects and complex stories across departments.

Reporting to the Executive Editor, the role focuses on developing a project roadmap, ensuring deadlines and budgets, and advocating for readers throughout the process. Experience leading newsroom projects is preferred.

Qualifications

• Five years of experience in editing and/or copy editing.
• Bachelor's degree in journalism or related field.

Responsibilities

• Develop, launch and manage experiments to build audience and expand storytelling.
• Monitor analytics with editors to identify improvement opportunities.
• Evolve coverage to deepen engagement with the digital audience.
• Lead complex or collaborative investigations and projects from concept to publication.
• Manage resources, risks, and team communications to sustain project integrity.
• Provide day-to-day leadership and supervision to staff.
• Recruitment, interviewing, onboarding, and retention practices.
• Conduct regular performance evaluations and coaching.
• Oversee scheduling and workload distribution for the team.

Skills

Editing expertise

Communication skills

Multitasking

Deadline-driven

Leadership

Project planning

News judgment

Headline writing

Cross-functional collaboration

Education

Bachelor's degree in journalism

Job description

Director of Experimentation and Projects

The Dallas Morning News

The Dallas Morning News has an exciting new role for a dynamic leader to drive innovation and organization in our award-winning newsroom.

The Director of Experimentation and Projects will have two major responsibilities:

• Managing experiments in storytelling and audience building
• Acting as project manager for long-term projects, large-scale events, and complex ongoing stories

The experimentation will derive from intense collaboration with Audience leaders and company stakeholders to plan short-term sprints testing concepts to expand our reach. Recent experiments include juicing weather coverage, adding Statbeat to high school football coverage, and launching a LinkedIn newsletter.

The ideal candidate will be an enthusiastic digital advocate who is eager to experiment with new strategies to help connect our journalism with the right readers.

As project manager, this journalist will be integral in the storytelling process, collaborating across departments to develop and implement strategies for special, multi-faceted, groundbreaking projects. They also help identify opportunities for innovation and experimentation.

This senior newsroom leader will create the project roadmap from inception to post-publication — partnering with assignment editors and visual stakeholders. They must manage the needs of all contributors and set deadlines that allow for the best work. They must advocate for our readers throughout the process.

Candidates should be able to lead analytically driven post-mortems to draw takeaways and areas for improvement that can be carried forward to future projects.

The Director of Experimentation and Projects should be an exceptional journalist, and a proven leader who is highly organized, digitally adept, and a natural collaborator. This editor will be part of the newsroom leadership team and will report to the Executive Editor. Newsroom project management experience is preferred.

This editor will directly manage teams of reporters.

The Dallas Morning News believes a collaborative and inclusive work environment is essential to a thriving workplace for all. We are in search of a diverse group of candidates.

Responsibilities:

• Develop, launch and manage experiments to build audience and expand storytelling, working in collaboration with Audience leaders and company stakeholders
• Monitor analytics for innovation opportunities and work with editors to suggest approaches for improvement
• Work with editors to evolve and shape coverage to deepen engagement with our digital audience
• Guide collaborative or complex journalistic investigations and projects from concept to publication, ensuring they stay on schedule, within budget, and meet quality standards
• Facilitate team communication, manage resources, identify risks, and maintain project integrity without dictating journalistic content
• Provide day-to-day leadership and supervision to assigned staff, ensuring operational goals and objectives are met effectively and efficiently
• Responsible for all aspects of employee management, including recruitment, interviewing, selection, onboarding, and retention
• Conduct regular performance evaluations; provide constructive feedback and coaching to support employee development and accountability
• Administer progressive discipline and counseling as needed, in alignment with company policies and procedures
• Oversee scheduling, workload distribution, and delegation of responsibilities to ensure balanced team performance and productivity

Requirements:

• Five years of experience in editing and/or copy editing
• Bachelor's degree in journalism or related field

Skills:

• Expert editor, communicator, multitasker
• Adapts quickly to changing technologies and workflows
• Juggles multiple assignments and completes work by deadline
• Communicates clearly and effectively with colleagues
• Motivator and positive influence on bringing people together to reach a goal
• Strong organizational and leadership skills to manage multifaceted projects and new digital product development
• Ability to identify challenges and develop contingency plans to address unexpected issues, ensuring a project's quality and integrity are maintained
• Good news judgment, accuracy, speed, grammatical precision, a flair for headlines
• Proven ability to plan, work in advance and coordinate production

The Dallas Morning News has been North Texas’ trusted news source since 1885, delivering credible, independent journalism rooted in accuracy, fairness and integrity. Serving more than 4 million people weekly across print, digital and social platforms, the newsroom covers the stories that shape life in Dallas and beyond — from politics and public policy to business, culture and sports. The Dallas Morning News continues to inform, engage and reflect the communities it serves across the region and the state.

About Hearst Newspapers:

With 2,500 employees across the nation, Hearst Newspapers (HNP) represents a network of 28 daily and 50 weekly publications, including the Austin American-Statesman, Houston Chronicle, San Antonio Express-News, San Francisco Chronicle and Times Union (Albany). Our portfolio also includes several top digital-only news and lifestyle sites such as Chron., CT Insider, MySA and SFGATE, along with marketing services businesses like Medium Giant and entertainment brands such as King Features Syndicate.

At HNP, we’re investing in new and innovative ways to tell stories — growing newsrooms, diversifying tools and evolving platforms — to support the millions of people who trust us each month to help them make decisions, take action and be inspired.

Be part of something bigger — Your Headline Awaits

Recognizing the diverse needs of our candidates, if you are interested in applying for employment and need assistance or an accommodation to use our website or regarding the application process, please contact us by email at [e-mail]. Please do not use this email address to inquire about the status of applications. We will only respond to inquiries concerning requests for a reasonable accommodation through this email address.

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The Dallas Morning News has an exciting new role for a dynamic leader to drive innovation and organization in our award-winning newsroom. The Director of Experimentation and Projects will have two major responsibilities: managing experiments in storytelling and audience building, and acting as project manager for long-term projects, large-scale events and complex ongoing stories.