The Tulsa Local News Initiative seeks a dynamic and innovative food, arts and culture editor to lead our coverage of Tulsa's vibrant creative scene. This role is a crucial role in our newsroom — in community listening, we hear loud and clear that Tulsans want to see their communities represented in full in our coverage, including all of the diverse perspectives that make Tulsa special, and to feel more connection to their neighbors. This editor will lead the shaping of our editorial vision for food, arts and culture reporting, ensuring it reflects and serves the diverse communities of Tulsa and inspires people to participate more in their communities and celebrates Tulsans who make our local culture what it is. This coverage will enable us to tell the full story of Tulsa, to incorporate more voices in Tulsa’s public narrative, and build trust with our audiences by showing them we love Tulsa as much as they do.

The editor will work with newsroom staff to source food, arts, and culture stories, but also be responsible for cultivating a network of contributors who represent different walks of life in Tulsa, including freelance writers, photographers, artists, and more.

The ideal candidate will have a deep passion for Tulsa, its history, its future, and its people. They are the person people often turn to to find out what’s going on around town, and have their finger on the pulse of what people care about across the city, and have both an understanding of Tulsa's cultural landscape and authentic curiosity about anything they don’t know about the city. They will have a passion for storytelling that goes beyond traditional reviews and previews, and a desire to reach more Tulsans, no matter what platform they’re on.

As a startup building a newsroom from scratch, we have the opportunity to reimagine arts and culture journalism. The food, arts and culture editor will work closely with the news editor and community engagement team to develop coverage that is responsive to local information needs and fosters a deeper connection between Tulsa's arts community and our readers.

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. 

• Develop and execute an editorial strategy for food, arts and culture coverage that aligns with TLNI's mission
• Recruit and manage a team of freelance contributors
• Take personal responsibility for initial and ongoing audience growth for a new news organization whose mission is to provide Tulsans with the local news and information they’ve been lacking
• Edit and publish compelling stories across various formats and platforms
• Cultivate relationships with key figures in Tulsa's food, arts and culture scenes and stay ahead of the curve on what’s happening, what’s opening and what’s closing
• Identify and pursue innovative storytelling approaches that engage diverse audiences
• Collaborate with the community engagement team to ensure coverage reflects local interests and needs, including in substance and in framing coverage in ways that are obviously relevant to Tulsans who haven’t historically turned to media outlets for this information
• Work with multimedia team to produce visually rich content
• Coordinate coverage of major cultural events and long-term projects
• Ensure arts and culture 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

• Manage and cultivate a network of freelance contributors
• Provide mentorship and professional development opportunities for team members

• Years of experience in arts journalism or related fields
• Track record of urgent, timely news publication
• Strong editing skills and a keen eye for compelling storytelling
• Deep knowledge of Tulsa's arts and cultural landscape
• Experience managing reporters and working with freelance contributors
• 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
• Background in visual arts, performing arts, or music a plus

Salary is competitive and commensurate with experience. The salary range for this role is $70,000-80,000 with a generous benefits package.