Social Video Producer

The Dispatch; Washington (District of Columbia); On-site; USD 75,000 - 90,000; Full time

Benefits offered by this job

Health insurance

401(k) match

Flexible PTO

Generous parental leave

Disability coverage

Equity participation

Additional standard benefits

Job summary

The Dispatch is seeking a Social Video Producer to turn our podcasts, TV appearances, and journalism into video content that reaches new audiences. You’ll cut clips, Shorts, shoot quick direct-to-camera takes with our writers, package YouTube uploads, and mentor two social interns who run day-to-day posting.

This hands-on role expects you to accelerate cutting speed by building templates, presets, and workflows so a small team can publish like a bigger one, every month.

Qualifications

• Two or more years editing short-form video for a news, media, creator, or brand account.
• Fluency in Premiere Pro, Descript, CapCut or similar editing tools.
• Experience with clipping tools like Opus Clip or Riverside’s Magic Clips.
• Familiarity with the political media landscape and right-of-center audiences.
• Ability to identify compelling moments and lead with them without altering the underlying work.
• Experience building templates, presets, and checklists to speed production.
• Comfort with platform analytics and using results to guide edits.
• Experience guiding interns or junior staff is a plus.

Responsibilities

• Clip every episode and ship three to five hook-first clips within 24 hours.
• Package for YouTube with titles, thumbnails, descriptions, and chapters.
• Direct-to-camera shoots with writers and editors.
• Run the social calendar; ensure posts go out on time across platforms.
• Develop templates and presets to cut time from each step.
• Test new formats monthly with clear learnings and adaptations.
• Track clips’ impact on subscribers, signups, and members.
• Collaborate with multimedia and uphold production standards.

Skills

Video editing

Clip prepping

Platform analytics

Mentoring interns

Right-of-center familiarity

Hooks & storytelling

Tools

Premiere Pro

Descript

CapCut

Opus Clip

Riverside’s Magic Clips

Job description

The Dispatch, founded by Steve Hayes and Jonah Goldberg in 2019, is home to thoughtful reporting and analysis, respectful dialogue, and a wildly engaged community of paying members. We have a perspective—we’re right-of-center—but we’re fiercely independent at a time when more and more outlets have become nothing more than partisan boosters. In 2025, The Dispatch acquired SCOTUSblog, the independent site that has covered the Supreme Court since 2002.

About the role

We’re hiring a Social Video Producer to turn our podcasts, TV appearances, and journalism into video that reaches people who’ve never heard of us. You’ll cut clips and Shorts, shoot quick direct-to-camera takes with our writers, package our YouTube uploads, and manage two social interns who run our day-to-day posting.

This is a hands-on job, and you’ll cut a lot of video. You’ll also be expected to make cutting video faster every month, by building the templates, presets, and workflows that let a small team publish like a bigger one.

Why this role matters now

Each of our shows already posts full episodes and a couple of Shorts to YouTube, where we have about 29,000 subscribers. We want three to five strong clips from every episode within a day of publishing, packaged for each platform, plus a steady stream of short takes from writers when news breaks.

How we work

We’re small on purpose. We’d rather invest in tools and systems that free people up for the work only they can do than bury smart and talented people with busywork. Everyone on the business side spends part of the week improving how the work gets done, including the unglamorous parts: cleaning up the data, building the template, connecting two systems that previously didn't talk to one another.

We try new platforms and tools early and cheaply, judge them honestly, and change course when the numbers say to. This fall we’ve started building tools that:

• draft social posts and search fields from finished pieces
• suggest clip moments from podcast transcripts
• assemble share kits for outside contributors
• write a first draft of the weekly metrics readout

Some of them will work, and some won’t. You’ll own them.

What you’ll do

• Clip every episode. Ship three to five hook-first, captioned clips from each episode within 24 hours, sized and cut for each platform.
• Package for YouTube. Write titles, thumbnails, descriptions, and chapters, and run a title or thumbnail test on every long-form upload.
• Get writers on camera. Shoot quick direct-to-camera takes with writers and editors, including people who’ve never done it before.
• Run the social calendar. Our editors approve social copy and packaging when they file. You and the interns turn that into the right posts on the right platforms at the right time, and you’re the final check before anything goes out.
• Make the workflow faster. We use tools that suggest clip moments from transcripts. You’ll decide which ones earn their keep, set up templates and presets, and cut time from every step. Anything that takes you an hour this month should take 30 minutes three months from now.
• Test something new every month. Try a new format, platform, or packaging approach each month, with a clear read on whether it worked and what you’ll change.
• Report on what matters. Track which clips drive subscribers, newsletter signups ,and members, not just views, and use that to decide what to cut next.
• Work with multimedia. Follow our production standards and request queue, and help make each show’s footage easier to clip from the start.

What we’re looking for

• Two or more years editing short-form video for a news, media, creator, or brand account, with a portfolio to show for it
• Fluency in Premiere Pro, Descript, CapCut or similar, and experience with clipping tools like Opus Clip or Riverside’s Magic Clips, including knowing when to override what they suggest
• Familiarity with the political media landscape, especially right-of-center audiences, and a commitment to The Dispatch’s values of civil discourse and intellectual rigor
• A sharp eye for the hook: You can find the most compelling moment in a piece of content and lead with it without distorting the underlying work
• A habit of building templates, presets, and checklists so the next one goes faster; you’ve cut your own turnaround time and can tell us how
• Comfort with platform analytics, and the habit of letting results, not just instinct, shape your next cut
• Experience guiding interns or junior staff is a plus

Who we’re looking for …

• You’ve tried a new editing tool this year and either adopted it or can tell us exactly why you didn’t
• You’ve spotted a bottleneck in someone else’s workflow and fixed it without being asked
• You’ve watched a clip flop, worked out why, and changed how you cut the next one
• You’d rather post three versions and learn something than polish one for a week
• You can sit down with a writer who’s never been on camera and get a usable take in 15 minutes

Your first 90 days

• By 30 days: Every episode of our flagship shows ships clips within 24 hours. You’ve mapped the clipping workflow and timed each step.
• By 60 days: The interns are running a calendar you set, and every long-form upload has a YouTube test running.
• By 90 days: Production time per clip is meaningfully lower than when you started. You’ve delivered the first monthly report on which clips drive subscribers and signups, and two format experiments have been read out.

Benefits: Health insurance, 401(k) match, flexible PTO, generous parental leave, disability coverage, equity participation, and additional standard benefits.

Compensation: $75,000–$90,000

The Dispatch is an equal opportunity employer. We evaluate all applicants without regard to race, color, religion, sex, sexual orientation, gender identity, national origin, age, disability, veteran status or any other characteristic protected by law.