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Lead Editor, Beauty & Personal Care, NYT Wirecutter

New York, NY

The mission of The New York Times is to seek the truth and help people understand the world. That means independent journalism is at the heart of all we do as a company. It’s why we have a world-renowned newsroom that sends journalists to report on the ground from nearly 160 countries. It’s why we focus deeply on how our readers will experience our journalism, from print to audio to a world-class digital and app destination. And it’s why our business strategy centers on making journalism so good that it’s worth paying for. 

Wirecutter is looking for a lead editor to join our growing beauty and personal care team. 

This editor will report directly to the beauty and personal care senior editor to carry out our ambitious coverage plans that are rooted in Wirecutter’s mission to help our readers find the best products for their needs. 

As a lead editor, you’ll serve as first or top editor for a variety of beauty and personal care guides while collaborating with your team’s writers and editors on reporting strategies and test planning. You’ll make sure our assignments stay on track, follow Wirecutter standards and processes, and reflect the advice and information most relevant to our readers. You’ll also write product coverage, from buying advice to guides to product odes. 

You have a firm grasp of the beauty and personal care product landscape—from skincare, haircare, and makeup to grooming and oral care—and understanding of industry trends, from emerging brands to cult-status standbys. They think inclusively and empathetically when guiding testing and reporting strategies and are passionate about how best to serve our readers. You have superb editing skills and can balance multiple editing projects with varying deadlines simultaneously.

This role is based in New York City.

Responsibilities:

  • You will work with senior editor to develop the strategy for your beat(s) and assign projects to freelance and staff writers
  • Project manage multiple guides, blog posts, and other coverage with different writers; manage deadlines; manage product research and testing; review writers’ supporting documents and notes; edit and revise copy; and collaborate with experienced Wirecutter editors to ensure stories meet our exacting editorial standards
  • You will contribute original ideas to test planning, suggest creative reporting strategies, and challenge writers’ assumptions
  • Use data to support potential story ideas and track performance; work with our SEO team and editorial managers to plan new coverage
  • Write short-form and long-form pieces
  • Collaborate with and respond to queries from fact checkers, copy editors, and producers to prepare pieces for publication
  • Work with our audience team to respond to reader feedback and questions; work with our affiliate team to resolve stock issues on recommendations; work with our operations team on product orders and testing plans; work with our photo editors to coordinate photography plans.
  • Demonstrate support and understanding of our value of journalistic independence and a commitment to our mission to seek the truth and help people understand the world.
  • You will report to the Beauty and Personal Care Senior Editor.

Basic Qualifications:

  • 3+ years of experience working at a media company with at least one year of experience working with and editing writers
  • Experience with SEO from an editorial perspective and a sense of how to use web analytics data to make editorial decisions
  • Experience with social media platforms and a general understanding of which content performs best on each platform
  • Experience writing or editing long-form pieces and can manage both long-lead and short-lead deadlines
  • Experience reporting on the beauty and personal care industries

Preferred Qualifications:

  • Experience creating test plans for product evaluation, collaborating with an art director and/or photo editor to present content visually, and expressing complex ideas using visualizations such as charts, graphs, or infographics
  • Passion balanced by skepticism of marketing claims and unproven ideas

This position is represented by the NewsGuild of NY

REQ-018121

The annual base pay range for this role is between:

$88,740 - $95,000 USD

 

The New York Times Company is committed to being the world’s best source of independent, reliable and quality journalism. To do so, we embrace a diverse workforce that has a broad range of backgrounds and experiences across our ranks, at all levels of the organization. We encourage people from all  backgrounds to apply.

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