The Washington Monthly is looking to hire a talented journalist to be its newest editor.
Since 1969, the Monthly has been a leading voice in liberal policy circles. (New York Times op-ed columnist David Leonhardt recommended it as the policy magazine to subscribe to.) Our staffers routinely appear on national and international radio stations, like NPR, Sirius XM, and the BBC. Our stories have been tweeted out by the likes of Elizabeth Warren. And the unique editor position has long been known as a training ground for successful journalists. Past editors include James Fallows (The Atlantic), Nicholas Confessore (New York Times), Benjamin Wallace-Wells (The New Yorker), Gilad Edelman (Wired), and Haley Sweetland Edwards (Time). We’re a small publication that routinely punches above its weight, and we do so by recruiting and developing world-class talent.
The position is a hybrid of staff writer and features editor. On the editing side, your responsibilities will cover the full spectrum of putting a magazine together, from developing story ideas and working with writers to line-editing their pieces to perfection. On the writing side, you will produce deeply reported longform features on a wide range of political and policy topics. With its mix of responsibility, mentorship, and throw-you-into-the-fire experience, this job is a rare opportunity to develop your talents as a writer, editor, and policy expert.
Before we hire you, we need to know how your mind works—but we don’t believe in unpaid editing tests. So we will pay everyone who goes through the application process.
Here’s how it works: We’ll choose a small number of applicants to report and write a web feature for the Monthly. You will be paid for your work upon completing the assignment, whether or not a published piece results. On the strength of your assignment, we’ll consider you for the position, which we hope to fill by this summer. Applicants who we consider not quite ready or suited for the editor job may still be invited to become regular contributors to the magazine or website.
About you: We’re less interested in what you’ve done than what you’re capable of doing. So while full-time journalistic experience is a plus, it’s not a requirement. What is a requirement is that you be a strong, clear writer with a great deal of intellectual curiosity and a healthy sense of humor. People from diverse backgrounds are strongly encouraged to apply.
How to apply:
- Send a resume, cover letter, and links to two to four published clips to jobs@washingtonmonthly.com with “Editor/Writer Search” in the subject line.
- Include at least one, and no more than four, of your best article pitches. These should be for stories in the 1,200-to-2,400 word range. (The pitches themselves should be in the 200-to-400 word range.) They could be reported features, policy analysis, political commentary, book reviews, or some combination of the above. For a sense of the topics and approaches that are a fit for the Monthly, go through some of our recent issues and check out several examples of our best web-only pieces.
No comments:
Post a Comment