Job Description:
POLITICO is seeking an experienced, versatile editor to join our newsroom on a six-month contract supporting our Breaking and White House teams.
This editor will help drive coverage of the biggest political stories of the day, from the White House to Congress to the campaign trail, during one of the busiest stretches of the 2026 midterm cycle. The role is designed for an editor with exceptional news judgment, sharp editing skills and the ability to move seamlessly between fast-paced breaking news and deeply reported enterprise.
The editor will spend weekends helping lead POLITICO's Breaking desk and will support weekday editing across both the Breaking and White House teams. Responsibilities include assigning and editing stories and newsletters, working closely with reporters to sharpen coverage, coordinating with homepage and audience teams, and helping ensure POLITICO is fast, accurate and competitive on the biggest stories.
This is a six-month contract position based in Virginia, New York or California.
Schedule:
Monday-Wednesday: 12:30pm-8:30pm
Saturday: 9:00am-5:00pm
Sunday: 10:00am-6:00pm
Who You Are:
- You thrive in a fast-moving news environment and enjoy making quick, smart editorial decisions
- You're a strong line editor who can improve copy while preserving reporters' voices
- You have excellent news judgment and know how to prioritize competing stories
- You're collaborative, calm under pressure and comfortable working across multiple teams
- You're adaptable and can quickly become fluent in new beats and workflows
- You're comfortable working independently while coordinating with editors across the newsroom
What You'll Do:
- Edit and publish breaking news, enterprise stories and newsletters
- Assign stories and help shape coverage throughout your shifts
- Work closely with reporters to strengthen reporting, framing and structure
- Coordinate with editors across the newsroom to ensure comprehensive coverage of major news events
- Help maintain POLITICO's standards for speed, accuracy, fairness and clarity
- Collaborate with homepage, audience and production teams to maximize the impact of our journalism
- Help lead weekend breaking news coverage and support weekday editing across the Breaking and White House teams
What You'll Need:
- 5+ years of professional journalism experience, including significant editing experience
- Excellent editing, headline writing and story framing skills
- Strong news judgment and experience covering fast-moving news
- Experience assigning stories and working directly with reporters
- Ability to juggle multiple priorities and meet tight deadlines
- Experience with digital publishing platforms and content management systems
- Familiarity with national politics or Washington coverage is strongly preferred
Compensation:
$120,000-$130,000 Annual Base (prorated over six-month term)
The final salary offered will be based on factors including relevant experience, skills, and qualifications.
We value our people. Click here for more on what we offer and what it’s like to work for POLITICO.
Let’s keep in touch. You can view our list of open positions here. We hope to see your application soon!
About Us.
POLITICO illuminates the forces shaping global power. Since 2007, we have delivered intelligence that anticipates tomorrow's headlines, not reports on yesterday's news. As politics has increasingly become the defining force of our era, our work has never been more vital.
Cabinet secretaries and Ministers start their mornings with our analysis. CEOs shape strategy around our reporting. Advocacy leaders rely on our insights to move policy. We deliver the straightforward facts and clear-eyed analysis they need to navigate the most complex political landscape of our lifetimes.
Our 1,100+ publishing professionals across the world's key democratic capitals—Washington, Brussels, London, Paris, Berlin, Sacramento, and New York—form the world's premier politics and policy newsroom. We tell the story of how power really works by explaining who wields it and how they plan to exercise it, connecting dots others miss and delivering scoops from sources others don't even know exist.
Innovation has always been a core tenet of our story. At launch, we bet that depth would trump scale, that talent would trump traffic, and that politics would become central to modern life. In 2011, we made another bet and launched POLITICO Pro to help decision-makers understand the business of government, transforming both how they shape government action and the business of journalism itself.
These bets have made POLITICO the most successful digital news startup of its generation and the indispensable resource for leaders who shape the future. Today, we are a rarity in media: a growing, profitable, and sustainable news organization.
POLITICO is a subsidiary of Axel Springer SE, a family-owned transatlantic media company headquartered in Berlin and New York. Axel Springer is dedicated to shaping the future of journalism in the free world, believing that a free and informed society is essential to democracy. The company’s guiding principles - first articulated as The Essentials by founder Axel Springer in the aftermath of World War II - remain a cornerstone of the company’s foundation today. Learn more about Axel Springer.
Posting date:
2026-07-31Title:
Temporary News Editor (6 months)Skills Required
- 5+ years of professional journalism experience, including significant editing experience
- Excellent editing, headline writing and story framing skills
- Strong news judgment and experience covering fast-moving news
- Experience assigning stories and working directly with reporters
- Experience with digital publishing platforms and content management systems
- Experience editing and publishing newsletters
- Ability to juggle multiple priorities and meet tight deadlines
- Familiarity with national politics or Washington coverage
POLITICO Compensation & Benefits Highlights
The following summarizes recurring compensation and benefits themes identified from responses generated by popular LLMs to common candidate questions about POLITICO and has not been reviewed or approved by POLITICO.
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Parental & Family Support — Parental leave is set at 24 weeks fully paid for all family expansions in the U.S., codified for newsroom roles in the PEN Guild contract. This is highlighted as unusually generous in the U.S. media context.
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Leave & Time Off Breadth — Generous PTO and flexible time off, with paid sick days and holidays, are offered. A remote work program is available in some roles.
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Healthcare Strength — Core coverage includes medical, dental, vision and mental-health/EAP support alongside disability and life insurance. Benefit listings indicate a comprehensive lineup across key health areas.
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