Managing Editor

Lookout Local; California (MO); On-site; USD 90,000 - 120,000; Full time

Job summary

Lookout Santa Cruz is seeking a Managing Editor to lead editorial excellence across Santa Cruz County. This central newsroom role requires a proven editor who can elevate ambitious journalism and guide reporters across beats to produce distinctive, high-impact work.

The ideal candidate will bring sharp news judgment, strong line editing skills, and a track record coaching teams in a fast-paced, digital-first environment, delivering seven-day-a-week coverage with clarity and authority.

Qualifications

• Proven editor with track record of elevating ambitious journalism.
• Experience leading teams of reporters across multiple beats.
• Strong news judgment, story ideation, and line editing skills.

Responsibilities

• Editorial Leadership & Team Development
• Story Ideation & Execution
• Edit stories with rigor and precision
• Coach reporters to elevate reporting
• Foster a culture of accountability and continuous improvement across the newsroom

Job description

About Lookout Santa Cruz

Lookout Santa Cruz has successfully become the primary news medium for the people of Santa Cruz County, reaching about 60% of the adults in the county each month. We’ve established ourselves, and our model, as a full-service very good community newspaper that happens to be digital. We cover all the topics that matter to our readers, from government and education coverage to environment and health, and food and the arts. We’ve established ourselves as a go-to source of breaking news and accountability reporting, increasing our impact year-by-year. Lookout Santa Cruz won the 2024 Pulitzer for Breaking News, and Lookout's fiercely mission-driven, business-driven model is winning wide national notice. Check out our network page: https://lookout.co/network.

About Lookout Santa Cruz

Lookout Santa Cruz has successfully become the primary news medium for the people of Santa Cruz County, reaching about 60% of the adults in the county each month. We’ve established ourselves, and our model, as a full-service very good community newspaper that happens to be digital. We cover all the topics that matter to our readers, from government and education coverage to environment and health, and food and the arts. We’ve established ourselves as a go-to source of breaking news and accountability reporting, increasing our impact year-by-year. Lookout Santa Cruz won the 2024 Pulitzer for Breaking News, and Lookout's fiercely mission-driven, business-driven model is winning wide national notice. Check out our network page: https://lookout.co/network.

Our workplaces are in-person, in-community, collaborative and collegial. We are building a diverse, highly skilled and mission-driven group of journalists, community builders and business people intent on maintaining our culture of learning, growth and community service.

About The Role

The Managing Editor is a central newsroom leader responsible for driving editorial excellence across Lookout Santa Cruz’s coverage of Santa Cruz County and, secondarily, the surrounding region. This role requires a proven editor with a track record of elevating ambitious journalism and leading teams of reporters across multiple beats to produce distinctive, high-impact work.

The ideal candidate brings exceptional news judgment, sophisticated story ideation, and rigorous line editing skills - along with a demonstrated ability to coach reporters to do their best work. Just as important, this editor thrives in a fast-paced, digital-first environment and is deeply committed to building a consistently excellent, seven-day-a-week report.

At Lookout, excellence is not occasional - it is expected throughout the day, every day. We serve readers with a mix of investigative and accountability reporting, authoritative beat coverage, breaking news, and service journalism that answers real community questions. The Managing Editor ensures that this work meets a high bar for relevance, clarity, and impact.

We prioritize reporting that connects the dots, explains complex issues, and delivers insight with authority and precision. Whether a story is 500 or 2,500 words, it should be deeply reported, well-sourced, and clearly written. We embrace a range of formats - from narrative and explanatory stories to Q&A, reader-driven formats, and multimedia - always matching the format to the journalism.

Responsibilities

• Editorial Leadership & Team Development
  • Work with the Executive Editor to set the daily and long-term editorial agenda.
  • Lead and manage a team of reporters covering a range of beats, providing clear direction from idea generation through publication.
  • Edit stories with rigor and precision, ensuring clarity, depth, fairness, and distinctiveness.
  • Coach reporters to elevate their reporting, sharpen their focus, and produce ambitious, high-impact journalism.
  • Foster a culture of accountability, creativity, and continuous improvement across the newsroom.
• Story Ideation & Execution
  • Drive a strong pipeline of enterprise, investigative, and beat-driven stories.