We’re looking for an Associate Editor!

As I mentioned yesterday, Dan Reed is moving on from editing for Greater Greater Washington as he has found a full-time job. That’s great for him but too bad for us, since we have to replace him. But maybe it’s good for you or someone you know who can fill the role?

Below is our job description. You can also download a PDF.

Please pass this along to people you know and email lists you participate in so that we can find the best person to take the articles from our many volunteer contributors and make them greater.

And please support us so we can pay our new Associate Editor, or even perhaps make it a full-time job, which would be even better!

Greater Greater Washington Associate Editor job description

Greater Greater Washington (www.greatergreaterwashington.org) is a news and opinion website which focuses on urban planning, transportation, and other policy which affects the shape and function of communities in the Washington, DC metropolitan area.

We are looking for a part-time paid Associate Editor to edit articles that our regular and guest contributors write, to help turn them into clear, effective, and interesting blog posts.

Greater Greater Washington publishes 3-5 articles per day, usually in the range of 400-800 words with some longer or shorter, all of which come from volunteer contributors with varying levels of experience writing in a blog format.

The Associate Editor will be responsible for the following tasks:

• Review submitted posts and work with the editorial committee to decide which ones to accept
• Edit posts for clarity, grammar, and to match the GGW style guide
• Communicate with the contributor about changes made and reach agreement on a final draft
• Write or modify intros, headlines, and tweets to maximize reader interest and social media referrals
• Schedule posts to go live spaced throughout the day
• Encourage volunteer contributors to write more posts when needed

This is a contractor position requiring approximately 15-20 hours per week. We hope to be able to expand the responsibilities and hours of this position to full-time in the future as the site grows and if and when we are able to secure more funding.

The Associate Editor will primarily work from home (or coffee shop or other place of the editor’s choosing) and occasionally attend meetings in DC or join conference calls with the editors. The position can start immediately after hiring or any time before March 1.

Candidates must be:

• Able to work a flexible part-time schedule that allows for time to edit in the mornings, as well as some editing and responding to emails throughout the day when more time-sensitive items arise.

• Passionate about smart growth and sustainable transportation with a demonstrated interest in and commitment to the issues that Greater Greater Washington focuses on.

• Extremely detail-oriented about writing, including a knack for noticing errors while quickly reading text and a strong understanding of grammar.

• Great 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 Associate 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.

  If you cringe when you read passive voice, technical jargon, or just overly wordy sentences; if you agree strongly with George Orwell’s maxim, “Never use a long word where a short one will do”; you may be ideal for Associate Editor!

The ideal candidate also has most or all of these preferred characteristics:

• Extensive familiarity with social media including Twitter and Facebook.
• Experience using social media to drive traffic to web content.
• Background in or experience with urban planning, transportation, and/or housing policy. This can be a formal planning or transportation degree or experience in other, less formal ways.
• A history of involvement in local issues, such as through an Advisory Neighborhood Commission, neighborhood associations, or organizing for specific change in a local community.
• Strong understanding of or experience with multiple parts of the Washington region in DC, Maryland, and Virginia.
• Experience working with issues and communities in the eastern and/or traditionally underserved parts of the region (such as DC wards 5, 7, and 8, eastern Montgomery County and Prince George’s County, and/or southern Fairfax County) is a plus.

To apply, please send a resume; cover letter highlighting your connection to walkable communities and why you want to be a part of our team; short critique of one recent Greater Greater Washington article (no more than 300 words), and 3 clips or writing samples to jobs@ggwash.org.