Senior Managing Editor, Daily Desk (Remote)

About Us

The Athletic is a digital sports media company that brings true sports fans closer to the athletes, teams and leagues that captivate their attention. We serve a multi-faceted audience that craves a richer connection and understanding with immersive storytelling and a like-minded community of fans. Founded in 2016 and with major operational hubs in San Francisco, Los Angeles, London and Melbourne, we empower a truly global team of more than 600 creators and cover more than 250 professional sports and collegiate teams across the United States, Canada and the UK. Our newsroom has produced thousands of in-depth reports along with more than 120 podcasts and other forms of premium content. Put simply, The Athletic is at the center of a sports fan’s universe.

About the Role

This is a senior leadership role providing comprehensive oversight of our newly launching Daily Desk, which will work across the newsroom to uphold and strengthen the quality of our everyday report and to seize on opportunities throughout the sports world for compelling journalism.

This position is based in the United States or Canada.

Responsibilities

• Assemble and direct a large staff of editors toward the publication of a significant portion of The Athletic’s daily journalism, including daily news and previously planned stories.
• Guide the desk’s editing process with an emphasis on accuracy, clean copy, strong reporting, clear writing, sharp framing and timely publishing and updating for a wide variety of stories.
• Collaborate with vertical editors, reporters and other areas of the newsroom to execute planned coverage, respond to spot news, seize on timely opportunities and generate ideas.
• Work to consistently lift the quality of our stories, to apply our standards and to coach our journalists to be rigorous, nimble and creative in their work.
• Establish processes and priorities for a steady workflow for all of our desk’s functions.
• Collaborate on the big-picture, conceptual vision for the desk in concert with the wider newsroom, leading our push to continually deliver journalism that is the best in the industry and that reaches readers effectively.
• Coordinate staffing assignments and editorial resources with respect to the sporting calendar, journalistic needs and a staff spread widely in terms of geography.
• Provide long term direction for the team and strategic development for individual staff.
• Maintain proficiency and knowledge of audience best practices, and in collaboration with our audience team strategize for stories on SEO, push alerts and placement opportunities for multiple platforms.
• Edit and publish stories via WordPress, and help guide fellow editors to do the same in various phases in the story process.
• Oversee the vertical’s financial budget and manage travel needs.

Requirements

• 10+ years of experience in digital journalism, including at least five years of direct editorial and personnel management.
• Expert ability to mentor and guide editors at multiple levels; can reposition and redeploy editors to get maximum value from staff and put them in position to deliver their best journalism.
• Keen news judgment, with experience framing stories in an engaging way for readers.
• Mastery of copy editing, story structure and framing, style guidelines and journalistic standards including accuracy, fairness and other critical values.
• Clear understanding of sensitive subjects and source vetting, with the ability to coach reporters and fellow editors in challenging journalistic situations.
• Expert ability to strengthen stories from inception to publication, and to collaborate with colleagues from multiple entry points.
• High-end knowledge of sports news and how key moments resonate and interact with the wider world.
• Ability to collaborate and execute on top-level editorial vision of the newsroom, fitting practical needs with broader priorities.
• High-end knowledge of best practices for a copy desk.
• Ability to work nights and weekends as needed, serving on call for major stories and sporting events.
• This position is based in the United States or Canada.