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Criminal Justice Editor

The Arizona Republic/azcentral.com, part of the USA TODAY NETWORK, is seeking an editor to lead and shape criminal justice coverage for the largest news organization in Arizona.

What the job is:

We're reimagining crime reporting to be a more community-centered, people-first beat, and this position is important in that transformation. While we are the largest newspaper in Arizona, we also maintain one of the largest digital presences in the state.

We want someone who thinks about justice as much as they think about crime. We want to report on crime in a different way, highlighting the people affected by crime, crime trends and how they impact the community, and the context readers need to understand crime in Arizona. This editor will be the guiding light for that coverage.

We are committed to reflecting our community and looking for candidates who are eager to lead work by, about and for people from underrepresented backgrounds. If you are an editor who shares this commitment and thrives in a collaborative environment this is a great opportunity.

Our reporters are data-driven but also focused on empathetic reporting. You'll need speed, curiosity, and a knack for spotting the throughline between disparate events. You'll need to be able to guide reporters at every stage of their career, from intern to senior reporter through breaking news and in-depth packages.

Your team of reporters and interns cover crime, through conversational and important real-time stories rising on social and within our communities. You'd provide daily direction and leadership for a small team, often editing live and working with other editors and reporter across the newsroom.

This job also makes numerous news judgment calls in a day - from identifying stories and trends that are immediate, important and influential to our audiences, but also seeing the larger picture trends and the story beneath the story or the story that is *not* getting told. The editor would initiate and direct multimedia, multiplatform coverage of those stories, using all necessary resources including video, photo and new storytelling formats.

This editor would work some breaking news shifts, to help bridge stories from breaking news to in-depth coverage with beat reporters.

This position means working with reporters as well as coaching and mentoring interns and fellows, and working with other editors, reporters and producers to ensure that we have news available to our audiences as soon as they are looking for it.

Who we are hoping you are:

This editor should be able to shift from assigning and thinking through daily coverage to developing broad strategic approaches for crime, police, courts and prison coverage.

We want someone who has experience editing and is particularly interested in topics of conversation within our community and deepening our connection with our audiences by covering the justice system from end to end.

We want to try new things and are continually looking for new ways to reach current and underheard audiences. The position demands initiative, accuracy, urgency and insight.

You should also be passionate about serving the information needs of Arizonans through stories that are useful and interesting.

Some traits we are looking for:

• Comfort with flexing different skillsets (and learning new ones.)
• A thoughtful editor and leader who can help us continue pushing our criminal justice coverage beyond surface-level coverage on a daily and enterprise basis.
• An interest in learning new storytelling formats and working with reporters to use them.
• An insatiable curiosity about the community around us.
• A love of serving information needs with stories but also solutions and conversation.
• Lived experience or interest in the communities that shape Arizona, particularly the Phoenix Metro area.
• A love of, and experience with, collaboration within a newsroom and with outside partners.
• A mindset of growth and change, and a willingness to try, be wrong, and learn from failure.
• An eye for homing in on the important conversations and stories of the day across any subject genre and found on any platform, whether social media, e-mail tips or our own sourcing.

The team:

Our 130-person newsroom is mission-driven and passionate about storytelling. The Republic is a multi-platform, digital-first newsrooms and our editors work on print, online and other formats throughout their day.

Our Criminal Justice desk consists of this editing position and three reporters, one covering daily crime, one covering policing and one covering the criminal justice system. The desk works together with our Daily Focus desk, which covers breaking news, and the stories Arizonans are interested each day with three editors and three full-time reporters. We also have interns year-round.

Responsibilities:

• Manage a team of staff and intern reporters to cover breaking news.
• Provide direction and leadership on covering criminal justice in a community-centered way.
• Strategize and launch coverage of news and trends, using news judgment, analytics and innovation.
• Assist in the selection and evaluation of interns. Direct their work and provide feedback both on the individuals and the program.
• Experiment with new ways of informing and engaging audiences on social platforms and alternate story forms.
• Lead and organize real-time coverage in fluid, fast-breaking, stressful situations.
• Monitor real-time news through social media tools like CrowdTangle and Dataminr to sniff out the most important and fascinating stories important to our audiences.

Requirements:

• Bachelor's or master's degree in journalism or related field or an equivalent combination of education and experience.

• Strong news judgment and editing skills.
• Comfortable in fluid, fast-breaking, stressful situations.
• A passion for empathetic, compassionate storytelling.
• Attention to detail and accuracy.
• Able to build a coverage strategy using analytics and innovation.
• Able to work occasional late nights as needed by the news cycle.
• Employment is contingent on passing a post-offer pre-employment background check.

We are eager to learn more about you and how you fit this role. When you apply, don't limit your upload to a resume; show us what you've done. To do so, put together a single document file that includes the following, in this order:

1. Your resume - one to two pages.
2. A cover letter that outlines how you would approach the job and your approach to covering criminal justice.
3. Links to 3-6 online samples of stories you've edited with some narrative about your leadership or contribution.

It is important that these items be assembled into a single document and uploaded in PDF format. Completing these steps will ensure that your application receives the highest consideration.

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Gannett Co., Inc. is a proud equal opportunity employer committed to building and maintaining a diverse workforce. As such, we will consider all qualified applicants for employment and do not discriminate in connection with employment decisions on the basis of an applicant or employee's race, color, national origin, ethnicity, ancestry, citizenship status, sex, gender, gender identity, gender expression, religion, age, marital status, personal appearance (including height and weight), sexual orientation, family responsibilities, physical or mental disability, medical condition, pregnancy status (including childbirth, breastfeeding or related medical conditions), education, genetic characteristics or information, political affiliation, military or veteran status or other classifications protected by applicable federal, state and local laws in the jurisdictions where Gannett employs employees. In addition, Gannett Co., Inc. will provide applicants who require a reasonable accommodation, as a result of an applicant's disability or religion, to complete this employment application and/or any other process in connection with an individuals' application for employment with Gannett Co., Inc. Applicants who require such accommodation should contact Gannett Co., Inc.'s Recruitment Department at [email protected].

Other details

• Job Family Content Management
• Job Function Consumer
• Pay Type Salary
• Required Education Equivalent Experience

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