Overnight News Editor, NPR

Full Time Job
OVERVIEW

Across our organization, we’re building a workplace where collaboration is essential, diverse voices are heard, and inclusion is the key to our success.
NPR is looking for an experienced editor to oversee our overnight news operation.

We’re looking for an editor who can handle stories and shape a variety of topics across many beats, both domestic and international. This is a mission-critical role and we are looking for the candidate who can lead the network’s overnight coverage with the usual kaleidoscope of impeccable news judgment, calm under deadline pressure and an acute sense of what the network needs at any given moment.

The overnight is a particularly active one for a network like NPR. Depending on our planning boards and scheduled enterprise, an editor might be asked to edit scripts for the Up First podcast by 5am or digital enterprise by 7a.m. Stories can come in from any of our newsgathering correspondents or from reporters from any of our partner stations around the country.

And then there is always the specter of breaking news that might require an editor to alter the best laid plans of daytime staff to prepare completely new broadcast and digital leads.

The right candidate should be confident directing news operations between 11 p.m. and 7 a.m. EST. The News hub team includes an overnight reporter and a pair of editor/producers under this editor’s direction. There is a lot of communication and coordination with the overnight team for Morning Edition and our Newscast unit.

This person should be comfortable directing the homepage, social channels and other means of digital presentation during the overnight hours. Ideally they have the editorial ingenuity to find angles (and sources) to tell the stories that can be constructed at those hours and published to resonate with morning audiences across platforms.
We’re looking for the right leader to seize that opportunity and show the full newsroom how best to take advantage of it.

RESPONSIBILITIES
• Develop and execute stories across all NPR platforms on breaking news, with an emphasis on the website and apps, comfortably editing with speed, voice, nuance and curiosity.
• Develop quick-turn enterprise story ideas and reporting as assigned for web reporting.
• Regular collaboration and coordination with colleagues on broadcast -- newscasts, magazine shows and podcasts -- to make sure our reporting is properly vetted and presented across platforms.
• Field, solicit, edit, organize contributions from others at NPR, including show hosts, correspondents, reporters, producers and editors.
• Work with colleagues across other divisions at NPR from the technologist and designers of Digital Media to the analyst of Audience Insights to the audio storytellers in Programming to provide input on editorial, style, technical and design issues that affect NPR's journalistic integrity and overall digital presentation and productivity.
• Ensure that all materials meet NPR News standards and practices, including standards of accuracy, fairness, honesty and impartiality.
• Ability and willingness to work varied shifts, including weekends, evenings and holidays.
• Perform other duties as assigned.
REQUIRED SKILLS
• Four years experience reporting or editing national or international news writing on deadline.
• Four years experience reporting and writing with an emphasis on breaking news.
• Demonstrated excellence in reporting and writing for the internet.
• Demonstrated news judgment.
• A passion for internet reporting, writing and/or editing.
• Demonstrated ability to work at different levels of a newsroom.
• Demonstrated familiarity with NPR journalism.
• Ability to solicit and edit work from other reporters to the Daily News Report.
• Ability to handle multiple and complex projects simultaneously under tight deadlines and changing priorities/conditions.
• Ability to work quickly and efficiently under deadline pressure. Must be able to report breaking stories.
• Proven ability to consistently work well with others, demonstrating at all times respect for the diverse constituencies at NPR and within the public radio system.
EDUCATION: Bachelor’s degree or equivalent work experience in journalism.
PREFERRED SKILLS
• Experience covering a variety of beats
• Broadcast experience
• Experience working with a news network

NPR is an Equal Opportunity Employer. NPR is committed to being an inclusive workplace that welcomes diverse and unique perspectives, all working toward the same goal – to create a more informed public. Qualified applicants receive consideration for employment without regard to race, color, ethnicity, national origin, ancestry, age, religion, religious belief, sex (including pregnancy, childbirth and related medical conditions, lactation, and reproductive health decisions), sexual orientation, gender, gender identity or expression, transgender status, gender non-conforming status, intersex status, sexual stereotypes, nationality, citizenship status, personal appearance, marital status, family status, family responsibilities, military status, veteran status, mental and physical disability, medical condition, genetic information, genetic characteristics of yourself or a family member, political views and affiliation, unemployment status, protective order status, status as a victim of domestic violence, sexual assault, or stalking, or any other basis prohibited under applicable law.