The Examination is a start-up nonprofit newsroom telling vital stories on the global public health beat. Launching later this year, we strive to produce fact-based accountability journalism that demands change — and saves lives.

Job summary

The Examination is seeking a dynamic newsroom leader to fill a vital leadership role on our team. As managing editor of our virtual newsroom, you will oversee its day-to-day functions, oversee editorial staff and help establish our working culture.

This is a position for a journalist who can stay on top of the many tasks required to keep a newsroom running smoothly, while also ensuring that the team is working at all times in support of, and in pursuit of, our editorial goals and mission.

The managing editor should have a passion for creating impactful journalism and for helping journalists produce their very best work. This role also requires a strategic thinker, who can help create and iterate a process that allows staffers to work efficiently and harmoniously.

Building and supporting a team of journalists that works together to figure out how best to tell the stories at the heart of our mission is of utmost importance to The Examination. The managing editor will be at the center of that effort.

Tasks will include:

• Evaluating story/project proposals with an eye to feasibility, challenges, opportunity cost and impact potential
• Directing major investigations: Coordinating news-gathering, research, data analysis, story editing, fact checking, legal review and other elements to ensure successful, timely roll-outs
• Creating and curating the newsroom’s story budget and publication plans
• Assigning and editing news items, follow ups, profiles, explainers and other stories that align with our editorial objectives
• Building and managing relationships with partnering news organizations, in concert with global partnerships coordinator and other editorial staff
• Identifying and overseeing freelancers, ensuring contracts are issued in a timely fashion; that work is completed in a timely manner and that it meets expectations
• Recruiting journalists to fill out our team
• Working with the executive director and director of finance to identify budget priorities and ensure the newsroom stays on budget
• Representing The Examination at conferences and events
• Overseeing editorial staff, keeping them engaged and on task. Ensuring also that our (virtual) newsroom is a safe and supportive working environment for all staffers
  

Qualifications:

• At least 5–7 years managerial experience in a professional newsroom as an editor or in a related role.
• An accountability news or investigative news background, with a proven record of guiding ambitious and impactful journalism from concept to completion.
• A global outlook is a necessity, as is an openness to collaboration.
• Past experience working on a reporting or editing team as part of a multi-newsroom collaboration is desired.

Pay and benefits

The estimated salary range for this position is $140,000 to $160,000. The final figure will take into account experience, achievements and location.

The Examination is a fully remote newsroom with excellent health and retirement benefits, a generous vacation and paid leave policy and a commitment to invest in the careers of the journalists on our staff.

We are an equal opportunity employer and have zero tolerance for discrimination or harassment of any kind. All employment decisions are made without regard to race, color, religion, sex, sexual orientation, age or any other status protected under applicable law.

People of color, people with disabilities, immigrants, LGBTQ+ people and those with experiences in the communities we cover are strongly encouraged to apply.

How to apply

Please email work@theexamination.org with your resumé and 3–5 clips of stories you had a strong hand in shaping, with a note telling us more about your work on these stories. You might describe how they were first conceived, editing challenges involved, any impact, etc.

Please also share your ideas for how you’d oversee a newsroom dedicated to telling accountability stories on the public health beat and how that approach would fit into the mission of The Examination (read more here). As part of that, please include at least one story idea.