Greater Greater Washington’s blog will turn ten years old next year! We’re looking for a Lead Editor to help bring it into its next decade. Just as the Washington, DC region has changed, grown, and evolved in the last decade, so has Greater Greater Washington. To help ensure that the blog stays relevant and reputable, drives change, and continues to influence how our region grows and develops in the years to come, we need a Lead Editor who can lead the charge.

Why the new position?

Our Staff Editor, Jonathan Neeley, is on to new opportunities in the planning world. We are so thankful to Jonathan for stewarding the blog, supporting the hundreds of volunteer writers who contributed to the site, and being an advocate for better urban planning across the region for nearly three years. We’ll miss him, but we’re excited to see him flourish in the next phase of his career!

What we’re looking for in a Lead Editor

We’re looking for a talented, motivated journalism professional with a keen eye for engaging content, experience building readership and working with writers, and a strong commitment to an inclusive, diverse, growing Washington, DC region where all people can choose to live in walkable urban communities. If this is you, apply! If it’s not, please spread the word!

The detailed job description is below, or you can download a PDF. Consider applying, and we’d also really appreciate your help spreading the word, especially to people and communities who don’t already read Greater Greater Washington. Thank you!

Content and copy editing: (~60%)

  • Review submitted posts and decide which ones to accept or reject. Efficiently and tactfully communicate with contributors about status and reasons for the decisions.
  • Edit posts for clarity, grammar, and to match the Greater Greater Washington style guide. Communicate edits to the author and reach agreement on final drafts.
  • Write or modify introductory paragraphs, headlines, and tweets to maximize post quality, reader interest, and social media referrals.
  • Edit Breakfast links.
  • Identify opportunities to creatively vary regular practices around post formats, headlines, and other elements to improve variety, readability, and interest.
  • Ensure all content and headlines are optimized for organic search and reflect SEO best practices.

Manage blog performance: (~20%)

  • Ensure that 4-5 posts (including Breakfast Links) go live each day.
  • Develop proposals for achieving goals and targets, including increasing readership and engagement with our content.
  • Execute on the planned strategies to achieve set targets while ensuring the quality remains high. Use metrics and data to measure progress toward targets.

Editorial leadership: (~20%)

  • Cultivate and support volunteer contributors to ensure a dependable, diverse corps of writers who can sustain the volume of high-quality posts about the issues GGWash seeks to cover.
  • Lead meetings of the volunteer editorial board.
  • Manage Breakfast Links team.
  • Support other Greater Greater Washington programs and activities as appropriate.

Promising candidates will have most or all of the following qualifications:

  • Sustained interest in urban planning, transportation, and/or housing policy, either through work in media (such as writing about these issues) or work in the planning or transportation field(s).
  • Extreme attention to detail in writing, including a knack for noticing errors while quickly reading text, and a strong understanding of grammar. A strong working knowledge of AP Style is desirable.
  • Talent at making complicated issues clear and compelling including detailed and technical topics. We work hard to convey important points about complex issues in an understandable way for laypeople. The Lead Editor needs to be able to pull out the core point from long articles, reword academic-sounding phrasing, and make clear why an issue matters to everyone.
  • Aptitude for teaching and leadership, as applicable to communicating Greater Greater Washington’s editorial values to a wide range of current and potential volunteer contributors and patiently assist them in improving writing and blogging skills.
  • An analytical mindset and experience analyzing data, particularly in journalism or a related field. We’re looking for someone who can use metrics and analytics to inform blog and editorial strategy. Working knowledge of Google Analytics is a plus.
  • Experience growing readership for an online news outlet.
  • Familiarity with social media including Twitter and Facebook and using it to drive traffic to web content.
  • Strong understanding of local issues and experience with multiple parts of the Washington region in DC, Maryland, and Virginia.
  • Facility with wearing multiple hats to support the efforts of team members in a small, growing nonprofit organization.

This is a full-time, salaried position. Greater Greater Washington provides equal employment opportunities to all applicants for employment without regard to race, color, religion, sex, national origin, age, disability or genetics.

The Lead Editor will work primarily from Greater Greater Washington’s offices at our space at WeWork White House, 1440 G Street NW, Washington, DC. We offer a benefits package that includes health insurance contributions, commuter benefits, and flexible paid time off. Work is mainly during the business day but will require occasional evening commitments for events and work outside regular hours when necessary to cover breaking news.

Continue the conversation about urbanism in the Washington region and support GGWash’s news and advocacy when you join the GGWash Neighborhood!

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Sarah Guidi was Greater Greater Washington's Managing Director from 2015 to 2018. She now lives in Raleigh, North Carolina with her family.