Managing Editor

Breaking News ABA; Lake Forest (IL); On-site; USD 47,000 - 75,000; Part time

Job summary

BreakingNewsABA in Lake Forest, Illinois is seeking a Managing Editor to run the editorial operation, oversee a small team of three to four writers, and contribute byline. This player-coach role splits time between editing the desk and reporting investigations, analyses, profiles, and breaking coverage, with room to shape the beat as the publication grows.

Ideal candidates bring newsroom hustle, business sense, and comfort with technology, including AI-assisted tools, to publish quickly and

Qualifications

• Two to three years of professional journalism experience.
• Strong writing and editing: structure, accuracy, sourcing, and headlines.
• Business acumen to read a deal announcement, funding round, or reimbursement change.
• Ability to translate complex technical material for a professional audience.
• News judgment and confidence to publish.
• Proficiency with AI-assisted research and editing tools.
• Familiarity with CMS and newsletter platforms.

Responsibilities

• Assign, edit, and shape stories from a team of three to four writers through publication.
• Run the editorial calendar and maintain a consistent publishing cadence.
• Report and write investigations, analysis, profiles, and breaking coverage.
• Set the standard for accuracy, sourcing, fairness, and house style.
• Coach writers with line edits and constructive feedback.
• Develop sources across ABA providers, investors, payers, regulators, clinicians, and advocates.
• Grow the publication’s audience and plan future coverage.
• Build and improve workflow with modern tools, including AI, to punch above the team’s weight.

Skills

Journalism experience

Editing skills

Business acumen

Clear writing

Headlines

AI-assisted research

CMS proficiency

Adaptability

Team leadership

Tools

CMS platforms

Newsletter platforms

Workflow automation

Analytics

Job description

On-site | Lake Forest, IL (North Shore) | Three-quarter time, with full-time possible

ABOUT US

BreakingNewsABA is a trade publication covering applied behavior analysis - the business, policy, clinical, and financial forces reshaping autism and behavioral health services. Private equity rollups, reimbursement fights, state policy shifts, clinical standards, and the people driving all of it.

It is a real beat with real stakes, and almost nobody is covering it properly. That is the opening we are built around.

We are a small, independent, growing publication. That means the work moves quickly, the decisions get made in the room, and the person doing the job has a real hand in what this becomes.

ABOUT THE ROLE

We are hiring a Managing Editor to run our editorial operation, report on it, and help build it.

This is a player-coach job. You will assign and edit the work of three to four writers, a mix of full-time and part-time, and you will also carry your own byline. Roughly half your week is editing and running the desk; half is your own reporting and writing.

It is also a step up. If you have been reporting for a few years and are ready to run a desk for the first time, this is that job - a small team, a beat nobody else owns, and the room to shape how it gets covered. As we grow, the role grows with it: toward heavier editorial leadership, a signature column or investigative franchise, or ownership of audience growth across the newsletter and social. We will build it around your strengths.

WHO DOES WELL HERE

This is an entrepreneurial newsroom, not an institution. The pace is fast, the cadence is real, and published beats perfect. You will wear several hats, make calls without a committee, and see the results of your judgment within the week.

The people who thrive here are journalists with business instincts. Our readers are operators, investors, and clinicians running organizations - they can tell in a paragraph whether the person writing understands how a business actually works. If you get genuinely interested when you open a deal announcement or a reimbursement schedule, and you also care about growing a readership and building something that lasts, you will like it here.

If what you want is a slow-turn, deeply researched, one-piece-a-quarter role, we are honestly not the right fit - and we would rather say so now than three months in.

WHAT YOU WILL DO

• Assign, edit, and shape stories from a team of three to four writers, full-time and part-time - from pitch through publication
• Run the editorial calendar and hold a consistent publishing cadence
• Report and write your own pieces: investigations, analysis, profiles, and breaking coverage
• Set the standard for accuracy, sourcing, fairness, and house style
• Coach writers - line edits that teach, feedback that makes the next draft better
• Develop sources across ABA providers, investors, payers, regulators, clinicians, and advocates
• Find the story others are missing in filings, deal announcements, policy dockets, and research
• Help grow the publication: sharpen what we cover, grow the audience, and shape where we go next
• Build and improve how we work - use modern tools, including AI, to streamline research, editing, publishing, and distribution so a small team punches well above its weight

WHAT WE ARE LOOKING FOR

• Two to three years of professional journalism experience
• Strong writing and editing: structure, accuracy, sourcing, and headlines
• Business acumen - you can read a deal announcement, a funding round, or a reimbursement change and understand what it means for the people in the industry
• The ability to turn complex, technical material into clear, sharp copy for a professional audience
• News judgment, and the confidence to make the call and publish
• Genuine fluency with technology and a habit of using it to work faster: AI-assisted research and editing tools, CMS and newsletter platforms, workflow automation, analytics
• Comfort with ambiguity and a bias toward action - in a small shop, the person who notices the problem usually fixes it
• Eagerness to step into your first editing and management role, or to build on early experience leading other writers

PREFERRED

• Experience at a B2B trade publication, a business or financial desk, or a startup newsroom
• Familiarity with healthcare policy, payer dynamics, or provider economics
• Background covering autism services, behavioral health, or applied behavior analysis - a real advantage, but not required. We will teach the beat to the right journalist.

LOCATION AND SCHEDULE

This role is on-site in Lake Forest, Illinois. We start on-site so you learn the beat and the team quickly; for an exceptional candidate, we are open to discussing flexibility once you are established.

We are hiring this as a three-quarter-time role - roughly 30 hours a week, on a schedule we set together. For the right person, we are open to making it full-time, either from the start or as the publication grows.

COMPENSATION

$30 - $36 per hour, depending on experience - approximately $47,000 - $56,000 a year at 30 hours a week.

For a full-time hire, the range is $60,000 - $75,000 per year.