Director of Experimentation and Projects
The Dallas Morning News
The Dallas Morning News has an exciting new role for a dynamic leader to drive innovation and organization in our award-winning newsroom.
The Director of Experimentation and Projects will have two major responsibilities:
Managing experiments in storytelling and audience building
Acting as project manager for long-term projects, large-scale events, and complex ongoing stories
The experimentation will derive from intense collaboration with Audience leaders and company stakeholders to plan short-term sprints testing concepts to expand our reach. Recent experiments include juicing weather coverage, adding Statbeat to high school football coverage, and launching a LinkedIn newsletter.
The ideal candidate will be an enthusiastic digital advocate who is eager to experiment with new strategies to help connect our journalism with the right readers.
As project manager, this journalist will be integral in the storytelling process, collaborating across departments to develop and implement strategies for special, multi-faceted, groundbreaking projects. They also help identify opportunities for innovation and experimentation.
This senior newsroom leader will create the project roadmap from inception to post-publication — partnering with assignment editors and visual stakeholders. They must manage the needs of all contributors and set deadlines that allow for the best work. They must advocate for our readers throughout the process.
Candidates should be able to lead analytically driven post-mortems to draw takeaways and areas for improvement that can be carried forward to future projects.
The Director of Experimentation and Projects should be an exceptional journalist, and a proven leader who is highly organized, digitally adept, and a natural collaborator. This editor will be part of the newsroom leadership team and will report to the Executive Editor. Newsroom project management experience is preferred.
This editor will directly manage teams of reporters.
The Dallas Morning News believes a collaborative and inclusive work environment is essential to a thriving workplace for all. We are in search of a diverse group of candidates.
Responsibilities:
Develop, launch and manage experiments to build audience and expand storytelling, working in collaboration with Audience leaders and company stakeholders
Monitor analytics for innovation opportunities and work with editors to suggest approaches for improvement
Work with editors to evolve and shape coverage to deepen engagement with our digital audience
Guide collaborative or complex journalistic investigations and projects from concept to publication, ensuring they stay on schedule, within budget, and meet quality standards
Facilitate team communication, manage resources, identify risks, and maintain project integrity without dictating journalistic content
Provide day-to-day leadership and supervision to assigned staff, ensuring operational goals and objectives are met effectively and efficiently
Responsible for all aspects of employee management, including recruitment, interviewing, selection, onboarding, and retention
Conduct regular performance evaluations; provide constructive feedback and coaching to support employee development and accountability
Administer progressive discipline and counseling as needed, in alignment with company policies and procedures
Oversee scheduling, workload distribution, and delegation of responsibilities to ensure balanced team performance and productivity
Requirements:
Five years of experience in editing and/or copy editing
Bachelor's degree in journalism or related field
Skills:
Expert editor, communicator, multitasker
Adapts quickly to changing technologies and workflows
Juggles multiple assignments and completes work by deadline
Communicates clearly and effectively with colleagues
Motivator and positive influence on bringing people together to reach a goal
Strong organizational and leadership skills to manage multifaceted projects and new digital product development
Ability to identify challenges and develop contingency plans to address unexpected issues, ensuring a project's quality and integrity are maintained
Good news judgment, accuracy, speed, grammatical precision, a flair for headlines
Proven ability to plan, work in advance and coordinate production
The Dallas Morning News (www.dallasnews.com) has been North Texas’ trusted news source since 1885, delivering credible, independent journalism rooted in accuracy, fairness and integrity. Serving more than 4 million people weekly across print, digital and social platforms, the newsroom covers the stories that shape life in Dallas and beyond — from politics and public policy to business, culture and sports. The Dallas Morning News continues to inform, engage and reflect the communities it serves across the region and the state.
About Hearst Newspapers:
With 2,500 employees across the nation, Hearst Newspapers (HNP) represents a network of 28 daily and 50 weekly publications, including the Austin American-Statesman, Houston Chronicle, San Antonio Express-News, San Francisco Chronicle and Times Union (Albany). Our portfolio also includes several top digital-only news and lifestyle sites such as Chron., CT Insider, MySA and SFGATE, along with marketing services businesses like Medium Giant and entertainment brands such as King Features Syndicate.
At HNP, we’re investing in new and innovative ways to tell stories — growing newsrooms, diversifying tools and evolving platforms — to support the millions of people who trust us each month to help them make decisions, take action and be inspired.
Be part of something bigger — Your Headline Awaits
Recognizing the diverse needs of our candidates, if you are interested in applying for employment and need assistance or an accommodation to use our website or regarding the application process, please contact us by email at [email protected]. Please do not use this email address to inquire about the status of applications. We will only respond to inquiries concerning requests for a reasonable accommodation through this email address.
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Skills Required
- Five years of experience in editing and/or copy editing
- Bachelor's degree in journalism or related field
- Newsroom project management experience
- Proven leadership experience managing teams of reporters
- Strong organizational skills and ability to manage multifaceted projects and digital product development
- Experience using analytics to inform experimentation and post-mortems
Hearst Compensation & Benefits Highlights
The following summarizes recurring compensation and benefits themes identified from responses generated by popular LLMs to common candidate questions about Hearst and has not been reviewed or approved by Hearst.
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Healthcare Strength — Healthcare coverage is described as comprehensive, including medical plan choice, full in-network preventive coverage, dental and vision, telemedicine, prescription coverage, and fertility resources. Mental-health resources and other wellbeing services (e.g., therapy sessions, crisis support, virtual physical therapy, and chronic-condition programs) further strengthen the health offering.
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Retirement Support — Retirement support is positioned as meaningful through a 401(k) plan with company matching and Hearst covering plan administration fees. Performance bonuses are also noted as available in some roles, adding an additional rewards component beyond base pay.
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Leave & Time Off Breadth — Time-off benefits include paid holidays, paid sick days, and vacation time with a commonly cited annual range, alongside paid parental leave and family medical leave. A remote work program and flexibility signals are also included as part of the overall rewards experience.
Hearst Insights
What We Do
Hearst is a leading global, diversified media, information and services company with more than 360 businesses. Its major interests include ownership in cable television networks such as A&E, HISTORY, Lifetime and ESPN; global financial services leader Fitch Group; Hearst Health, a group of medical information and services businesses; transportation assets including CAMP Systems International, a major provider of software-as-a-service solutions for managing maintenance of jets and helicopters; 33 television stations such as WCVB-TV in Boston and KCRA-TV in Sacramento, California, which reach a combined 19 percent of U.S. viewers; newspapers such as the Houston Chronicle, San Francisco Chronicle and Times Union (Albany, New York); more than 300 magazines around the world, including Cosmopolitan, ELLE, Men's Health and Car and Driver, and digital services businesses such as iCrossing and KUBRA; and investments in emerging digital entertainment companies such as Complex Networks.
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