Managing Editor

Position: Managing Editor, The Mary Sue ·
Location:Remote (applications from all regions are welcome) ·
Compensation:Competitive, based on experience and location

Help redefine a pop culture institution for a new era of digital media

The Mary Sue is known for feminist-leaning pop culture and geek media coverage that celebrates women, diversity, and LGBTQIA+ voices, and takes entertainment and fandom seriously as cultural forces. We're now building the next chapter of that legacy: repositioning around what's actually blowing up in the worlds of online culture, entertainment, politics, and current events. We’re covering them all with the same sharp lens that's always defined us, and moving from a search-first model to a multimedia one, while still adhering to best practices for Search and Discover.

TV, movies, and entertainment stay core to what we do, but we're reframing how we cover them: through what's going viral, what generates genuine conversation, and what earns reach on the platforms that matter to us now, not just what works on Google. Organic search still matters to us, and good SEO practice remains part of how we work day to day, but they're no longer what shapes our entire strategy.

Digital media is changing fast, and we're excited about it. Changes in the publishing landscape are opening up new ways to reach an audience, even as shifts in organic search and the rise of AI are eroding the models and methods that worked in the past. We want someone who sees this as an opportunity to build something different and meet the fans where they are, with the content they’re looking for.

This is an opportunity to reshape a brand with real history and a strong voice. You'll take a team of 20+ staff writers, freelance writers, and subeditors, publishing between 600 and 1,000 articles a month, and lead them as the team grows in size and navigates new distribution models, platforms, wider coverage, and a rapid growth trajectory.

Syndicated news is fast becoming a primary distribution model, with platforms like MSN and Newsbreak being important to The Mary Sue’s growth. Social-first news and commentary is a smaller but fast-growing part of the brand’s focus and future. With this in mind, this role needs to be excellent at framing content for various distribution platforms and genuinely invested in building multiple areas  right candidate should be comfortable making calls based on what the data says is working on different platforms and traffic referral sources.

This role will involve a high volume of editing early on, with your focus shifting over time toward developing the team so output and publishing doesn't depend on you alone.

• Lead the reinvention of how The Mary Sue covers entertainment, politics, and internet culture, for a team of writers publishing at scale
• Build out our multimedia approach to journalism and reporting, including short-form video, and own the strategy to scale this growth opportunity
• Develop robust story ideation and sourcing workflows/strategies across various platforms (including Tik Tok, Reddit, social media) to make sure The Mary Sue is ahead of the curve on finding the next big story, not just reacting to other publishers
• Coach writers toward becoming confident self-publishers and copy editors in their own right
• Recruit new writers as the team grows
• Ensure The Mary Sue meets its publishing guidelines and contributes to conversation ethically and accurately
• Work directly with syndication platforms like MSN, Newsbreak, or Yahoo, taking the time to understand what works where
• Plan and assign coverage built primarily around written content and article performance, with social as a growing secondary focus over time
• Keep organic search and SEO best practices in good health as a maintained part of the business, without allowing them to dominate your entire publishing strategy
• Own the data and economics behind the coverage: what we're spending, why, and what the return looks like

• Editorial leadership experience, ideally in fast-moving news, culture, or entertainment media. Experience overseeing, curating, and distributing…