The Tulsa Local News Initiative seeks a driven, organized and experienced editor to manage and edit beat reporters, ensuring the quality of daily stories while also taking a particular focus on short-, medium- and long-term professional development for journalists at the Initiative. This focus should extend to – in collaboration with the Tulsa Documenters Editor – standout participants of our community journalism programs, such as the Tulsa Documenters program, part of the award-winning Documenters Network that trains and pays residents to cover public meetings. This is a key role in producing timely, useful and impact-oriented local journalism, in developing public service journalism talent, and shaping the future of local journalism in Tulsa and Oklahoma.

This editor will also work closely with the executive editor and leadership at the Tulsa Local News Initiative to ensure our journalism is meeting the needs of Tulsa residents, resulting in high-impact outcomes, as well as high quality standards for unbiased, independent local reporting. They will help reporters hone their skills in beat development, sourcing, and storytelling.

The ideal candidate will have local reporting and editing experience as well as knowledge of professional development principles and tactics, and a passion for helping early- and mid-career journalists build skills necessary to deliver daily, audience-first local journalism.

The Tulsa Local News Initiative is a yet-to-be named startup nonprofit organization that has raised nearly $14 million so far in service of a vision to give everyone in Tulsa the local news they need. The newsroom will produce high-quality accountability journalism while working directly with residents to produce and distribute community reporting, employing an innovative model for local journalism that is directly responsive to local information needs. In addition to a team of editors and beat reporters, the Tulsa newsroom will have best-in-class community engagement expertise, multimedia production, dedicated capacity for service journalism and research, and Tulsa Documenters.

At TLNI, we value learning, curiosity and diverse perspectives. We are dedicated to equitable hiring and follow best practices to create an inclusive hiring process.

• Assign, edit and manage daily reporting output of a team of four reporters and the Tulsa Documenters Editor
• Work with executive editor, managing editor and Oklahoma Eagle Editor to incorporate professional development regularly into the news workflow, with particular focus on audience-focused daily news reporting, writing and publishing skills
• Work with other editors in the newsroom to create ample space for story ideation and development, and a culture in which reporters feel challenged to do ambitious work in service of their communities.
• Help identify and create opportunities to take time editing individual stories side-by-side with reporters to talk through strengths and opportunities for growth
• Work with the executive editor, managing editor and other TLNI leaders to develop a content strategy grounded in the audiences we serve, to set measurable targets for journalistic impact and local audience engagement, and to guide the news team to achieve those goals
• Work with editors to instill a sense of ownership in the newsroom’s strategy among reporters, including motivating reporters to think in multimedia formats and to be collaborative with our audience and multimedia specialists to ensure their content is reaching as many people as possible, using best practices in social and emerging media, and incorporate these practices into work with reporters
• Oversee the Tulsa Documenters assignment editor who will oversee assignment, editing, and mentorship of residents trained and paid to cover public meetings and take other special assignments; lead the news team to ensure their contributions to the newsroom are valued and integrated into the newsroom’s content strategy
• Fill in as necessary editing TLNI or Oklahoma Eagle news stories
• Ensure content adheres to TLNI's editorial standards and style
• Contribute original reporting and writing as needed
• Participate in newsroom planning and strategy sessions
• Represent TLNI at community events and with cultural partners

• Directly supervise and mentor team of 4-6 reporters, ensuring a quick publishing cadence that keeps news products on multiple platforms fresh, informative and relevant to our target audiences
• Directly supervise the Tulsa Documenters editor

• Experience in editing and mentoring, teaching or managing early-to-mid-career journalists
• Strong editing skills and a keen eye for compelling storytelling
• Experience editing and managing journalists from nontraditional professional backgrounds
• Demonstrated ability to produce innovative digital content
• Strong news judgment and understanding of journalistic ethics
• Excellent written and verbal communication skills
• Experience with audience engagement and community-centered journalism
• Familiarity with digital publishing tools and content management systems
• Ability to work collaboratively in a fast-paced, startup environment
• Multilingual skills valued, particularly Spanish

Salary is competitive and commensurate with experience. The salary range for this role is $80,000-100,000 with a generous benefits package