[Hiring] Deputy Managing Editor, Local and Engagement @The Marshall Project

Role Description

The Marshall Project is looking for an experienced editor to oversee our local newsrooms and pursue investigative work informed by meaningful engagement with the local communities we cover, as well as support our engagement efforts on national investigations.

Engagement is a central pillar of The Marshall Project’s mission, focused on surfacing and covering issues that are relevant to the justice-affected community. This means the jailed and incarcerated, the formerly incarcerated, their families and friends, and the neighborhoods with high rates of incarceration and poverty. To do this, we need to be in contact with these communities, offering meaningful ways for them to “engage” with the newsmaking process.

Our goal is to build and maintain a sense of trust with the audiences we cover — without sacrificing journalistic integrity. Engagement is not something we turn to after a story is written but a strategy that starts with how we choose which stories to cover, what form those stories should take and how they should be distributed.

This editor will:

• Oversee TMP’s local news operation through an engagement lens, tapping into the local justice-affected local community to help guide our investigative work.
• Work with a deputy to oversee a team of investigative reporters in TMP’s local newsrooms in Cleveland, Jackson and St. Louis.
• Deepen our engagement strategy in each city, working with reporters to establish relationships with members of the community and identify themes for accountability-driven stories.
• Uphold high editorial standards for our local newsrooms, helping reporters conceive and execute high-level, high-impact investigative work focused on inequities within the justice system, with the goal of driving meaningful change on the issues that matter most to our local audience.
• Identify common themes from the local newsrooms that could lend themselves to joint efforts and potentially investigations on a national scale that hold the powerful accountable.
• Collaborate seamlessly with departments across the newsroom in the production and dissemination of locally produced work, ensuring the coordination required to produce multimedia content on several different platforms.
• Coordinate with editors and reporters across The Marshall Project newsroom on engagement efforts surrounding national investigative projects.
• Coordinate closely with the director of audience on a plan to establish TMP – and, as appropriate, individual reporters – as a brand in each city, and develop a social media plan to drive local readership.
• Travel on a regular schedule to the local newsrooms and to engage with local communities.

Qualifications

• 10 years of experience in journalism, including 7 years of editing and news leadership experience.
• 2 years of dedicated experience with engagement work and a demonstrated record of producing high-impact investigative work.
• Experience with engagement work that informs journalism and helps readers process and understand results.
• Familiarity with investigative tools including FOIA and state open records laws, analyzing legal and court documents, government reports, tax filings, understanding data, fact-checking, and bullet-proofing stories.
• Experience leading reporters and other editors to set goals, direct reporting and investigative tactics, and fine-tune the final product.
• Experience overseeing deadlines on both long- and shorter-term projects.
• Ensuring all content meets the highest standards of accuracy, rigor, and editorial quality.
• Experience producing stories in the content management system.
• Collaboration with colleagues from different sectors of the news organization.

Requirements

• Ability to work closely with colleagues from The Marshall Project – reporters, editors, data team, developers, designers, photo editors, video and audience – and partner organizations.
• Willingness to travel periodically to Cleveland, Jackson, and St. Louis.

Benefits

• Full-time position with a competitive salary.
• 100% employer-paid medical insurance.
• Employer-subsidized vision and dental insurance.
• Matching traditional and Roth 401k (immediate vesting).
• Voluntary benefits including Health and Dependent Care FSA, commuter benefits, pet insurance, short and long-term disability insurance, employee and dependent life insurance, AFLAC accident, hospital indemnity, and critical illness coverage, legal benefits, personal excess liability insurance, and employee discount marketplace.
• 17 days of paid time off each year (in addition to office closure between Dec. 24 and Jan. 2).
• Paid parental leave.