Senior Editor
This position is no longer open.
Slate is hiring a senior editor to help run our news, politics, and legal coverage. We are looking for someone with high energy, ambition, a strong sense of what is and isn’t important to cover, and a wealth of ideas about the news of the day. This senior editor must be hungry to analyze, clarify, and break news, be able to work with both staff and freelance writers of various levels of experience, and have excellent communication skills to succeed in a fast-paced news environment. It’s important that this editor be collaborative and flexible: We need someone who’s able to move between teams and stories as the news dictates. A typical day for this editor might involve making assignments and editing copy on several important and ongoing stories—the Supreme Court nomination process, the Mueller investigation, ICE, the midterms—and helping out several section editors at once. While the ideal candidate will have a politics or legal background, the most valuable things you can bring to Slate are sharp editing skills, high interest in current events, and a real understanding of the kinds of arguments we strive to make here. This position is based in New York or Washington.
Key responsibilities:
• Editing analytic and reported coverage of breaking news
• Generating ideas for quick takes, explainers, essays, reported features, and cover stories
• Motivating writers in a news cycle that never sleeps
• Supporting and working with our jurisprudence and politics editors
• Collaborating with writers and editors across the magazine on larger sitewide initiatives
Requirements:
• A sharp, funny, decisive mind and pen
• At least 5 years’ experience working as an editor or writer, preferably as part of a team
• A deep well of story ideas and understanding of the political and legal landscapes
• Top-notch organizational and communication skills
• Smarts, kindness, humor, and generosity, all of which will help you work well with smart, kind, funny, generous colleagues
Slate is committed to excellence through diversity, which involves attracting talented people from diverse backgrounds and traditions. We encourage everyone to apply.
This is a position covered under a collective bargaining agreement between Slate and the Writers Guild of America East.
