Senior Editor​/Page One

The Baltimore Sun is seeking a sharp, ambitious Senior Editor/Page One to help identify, develop and elevate the most consequential journalism produced by our newsroom.

This is a hands-on editing and story-development role for an experienced journalist with exceptional news judgment, strong accountability instincts and the ability to recognize the story others miss.

The Senior Editor/Page One will look across the newsroom each day for journalism worthy of our most prominent digital and print presentation — and help reporters and editors get it there. That means identifying the strongest angle, recognizing missing reporting, developing smart follow-ups and helping turn promising daily stories into distinctive enterprise and accountability journalism.

We want someone who understands that major journalism does not always require months of reporting. A revealing public record, an overlooked government decision, an audit, a contract, a court filing, a contradiction or the right follow-up question can produce consequential journalism in hours or days.

This editor should constantly be asking:
What's the real story? What are we missing? Who made this decision? Who benefited? What did it cost? Who is affected? Who should be held accountable? What can we find out today that our competitors don't know?

The Senior Editor/Page One will work across desks to collaborate closely with assignment editors and reporters, direct or assist with major coverage and help establish a newsroom-wide standard of urgency, ambition and accountability.

• Identify the strongest journalism across The Sun's daily report and determine which stories have the potential for prominent digital and Page One treatment.
• Work with reporters and assignment editors to determine what additional reporting, sourcing, documentation, context or framing can elevate promising stories.
• Recognize important news quickly — including significant developments that may be buried in press conferences, government meetings, reports, audits, budgets, court filings and public records.
• Find the larger accountability story behind daily developments.
• Develop quick-turn accountability and investigative work that can be reported in hours or days rather than reserving enterprise journalism for long-term projects.
• Look for opportunities involving government spending, contracts, taxes, development, public safety, education, regulatory failures, institutional performance, conflicts of interest, promises versus results and other matters of significant public consequence.
• Ask who made decisions, who benefited, who paid, what went wrong, and whether leaders and institutions delivered what they promised.
• Help reporters follow money through budgets, contracts, grants, nonprofits, development agreements, campaign finance records, settlements and other public and private spending.
• Identify reporting holes before publication, including missing records, sources, data, context, responses, relevant history or evidence.
• Challenge assumptions and official narratives regardless of their source and ensure conclusions are supported by reporting.
• Help reporters and editors identify meaningful follow-up stories and prevent consequential journalism from becoming one-day coverage.
• Generate original story ideas and help develop reporting plans for executing them quickly.
• Edit high-priority stories for reporting, structure, fairness, accuracy, clarity and impact.
• Assist in directing major breaking news, including determining what can be published immediately, what needs additional verification and what reporters should pursue next.
• Help coordinate newsroom-wide coverage when major stories cross traditional beats or departments.
• Work closely with audience, visuals and other newsroom teams to ensure our strongest journalism is presented effectively and reaches the largest appropriate audience.

Page One is both a specific responsibility and an editorial standard for this position. The Senior Editor/Page One will help select and develop journalism for the print front page while maintaining a digital-first approach.

The goal is not simply to assemble Page One, but to help create more journalism worthy of it by identifying promising stories early, strengthening reporting and ensuring our strongest work receives thoughtful presentation across platforms.

The Baltimore Sun expects journalists to embrace emerging tools that can make reporting and editing faster, deeper and more…