Editor & General Manager - Salem, VA (24153) Mountain Media, LLC

Editor & General Manager — Community Newspaper Network
Mountain Media / Virginia Media
• West Virginia & Southern Virginia
• Full-Time

We publish 19 community newspapers across rural West Virginia and southern Virginia — the kind of papers that are, in many of their counties, the only real journalism left. For decades these titles have covered the city councils, school boards, ball games, and front-porch stories that no regional or national outlet will ever touch. Our readers trust them. Our communities depend on them.

We're looking for a rare person to help lead them: a strong editor who also has the instincts to run a business.

This role starts in the newsroom and grows into the front office. You'll begin by editing one of our papers while taking on management responsibilities across the network — keeping production on track, supporting our editors and staff, working with our printers and vendors, and helping us grow our digital audience. Over time, the editing hands off and the role becomes a full General Manager position leading the whole operation.

It's a genuine path: editor today, general manager tomorrow, with the pay and responsibility growing as you do.

• An experienced editor or journalist who commands respect in a newsroom
• Organized, dependable, and comfortable leading people
• At ease with budgets and numbers — you can read a P&L and manage a cost
• Self-directed: you don't need someone standing over your shoulder
• Willing to travel across our WV and southern VA communities
• Someone who believes local journalism is worth fighting for

Community or weekly newspaper experience is a strong plus, as is familiarity with newsroom production and digital publishing.

• A real leadership path — grow from editor into general manager of a 19-paper network
• Starting total compensation in the high $40s, with a defined path to a full General Manager salary
• Because we're a small, independent company, we don't administer a group health plan. Instead, we build a health and benefits allowance into your total compensation, so you can choose the marketplace or private plan that fits you best rather than being locked into one company plan — use it for a plan of your own, a spouse's plan, or however suits you.
• [PTO, retirement, and any other benefits: fill in per your standard package]
• The chance to help shape the future of independent local journalism, not just report it
• Direct working relationship with an owner with 50 years in community publishing

Mountain Media, LLC and Virginia Media, Inc. are equal opportunity employers. [Confirm/adjust EEO language per your policy.]