Senior Editor, Accountability and Investigations

About the job

The City Reporter is seeking an experienced, ambitious Senior Editor to lead our accountability and investigative journalism that exposes corruption, wrongdoing and violations of public trust.

The Organization

The City Reporter (formerly THE CITY) is New York City’s award-winning nonprofit, nonpartisan local news organization. Working across all five boroughs, our stellar journalists bring diverse skills and backgrounds to the task of covering New York’s neighborhoods, holding the powerful to account and making sense of the greatest city in the world.

The City Reporter’s investigative reporting has resulted in criminal indictments, political resignations and ethics inquiries. It has inspired new laws, influenced budget choices and reversed injustices. The City Reporter’s explanatory journalism has helped hundreds of thousands of New Yorkers to vote, keep their apartments warm, stay safe in dangerous weather and access public assistance.

The Position

The Senior Editor for accountability and investigations will work across the entire newsroom to produce stellar, high-impact articles. These may be long-form investigations or a drumbeat of daily coverage or enterprise journalism on a weekly cadence.

From story conception to reporting to editing and distribution, the Senior Editor will make sure we deliver on our mission to expose wrongdoing, champion transparency and better New Yorkers’ lives.

Responsibilities

• Conceive and edit The City Reporter’s most ambitious investigative journalism, with a focus on New York’s most powerful but most unchecked institutions, players and businesses.
• Coach every reporter in the newsroom to pitch and execute on a major investigation at least once a year.
• Bolster the whole newsroom’s capacity. Build and maintain a steady flow of investigative leads, including through public records, information requests, source cultivation and data analysis.
• Help set our investigative agenda and ensure that The City Reporter’s investigations fulfill our mission to serve all New Yorkers, empower citizens and advance democratic accountability.
• Manage long-term projects that involve multiple reporters, external partners, wide-ranging information requests, complex datasets, visualizations and ethical and legal considerations.
• But also, be able to drive the accountability angle of a day story under competitive pressure.
• Make sure our investigations are crystal clear, narratively engrossing, vividly described and just in general un-put-downable, in any format or at any length.
• Bulletproof our work through precision editing and fact-checking and liaise with counsel on legal reviews.
• Keep abreast of new developments in investigative reporting and journalism broadly, bringing innovative practices to The City Reporter.

Qualifications

• 10+ years in journalism with at least 3 years editing investigations, with a proven track record of holding the powerful to account and delivering results in the public interest.
• A passion for all things New York and a deep investment in the power of local accountability reporting.
• Experience with investigative reporting methods, including obtaining primary materials through information requests, source cultivation and data acquisition and analysis.
• Impeccable judgment and the ability to safeguard the highest journalistic standards under pressure.
• A love of collaboration in and outside the newsroom and the ability to have tough conversations while building mutual trust and respect.
• Ability to multitask, flipping seamlessly between poking around on leads to final proofing an investigation to representing our work post-publication.
• A track record of mentoring reporters to achieve their best work.
• Last but not least, bring enthusiasm, curiosity and excitement to the newsroom.

Compensation and Benefits

• $140,000 - $165,000, depending on experience
• Comprehensive health, dental and vision coverage.
• Twenty days PTO, holidays, sick and parental leave.
• Professional development opportunities.
• A collaborative, mission-driven newsroom environment.