Being an editor of the New York Times opinion section used to be considered one of the top jobs in daily journalism, so there wasn’t much turnover. But now in the age of Woke Newsrooms … So, from the New York Times’ Job Openings webpage:
Deputy Opinion Editor
New York, NYJob Description
The New York Times is looking for a proactive, creative, digitally-experienced editor to shape its Opinion report and help lead the department. Responsibilities will include helping set a strategy for the department’s signature coverage and then directing day-to-day implementation of that strategy, directing a team of editors and visual and audio journalists. The deputy editor has excellent news judgment and takes ownership of, and pride in what we publish. You will help recruit and edit new team members and Opinion columnists and contributors. You will represent Times Opinion in conversation with journalistic and business leaders across the Times.
We’re looking for an editor with a sense of humor and a spine of steel, a confident point of view and an open mind, an appetite for risk and exacting standards for excellence in writing and visual presentation. We’re looking for someone who wants to grow big ideas to make the world a better place, and to have fun doing it.
The Times Opinion team aims to promote the most important and provocative debate across a range of subjects – including politics, global affairs, technology, culture, and business – and is passionate about including a vast array of diverse voices and perspectives. You have curiosity and an understanding of the opinion ecology of the Web and of how to interpret and apply digital metrics. And this editor must be a sensitive and deft manager who is committed to advancing a workplace and culture that is inclusive, open and fair.
The application deadline for this position is March 17th, 2021.
The New York Times is committed to a diverse and inclusive workforce, one that reflects the varied global community we serve. Our journalism and the products we build in the service of that journalism greatly benefit from a range of perspectives, which can only come from diversity of all types, across our ranks, at all levels of the organization. Achieving true diversity and inclusion is the right thing to do. It is also the smart thing for our business. So we strongly encourage women, veterans, people with disabilities, people of color and gender nonconforming candidates to apply.
The New York Times Company is an Equal Opportunity Employer and does not discriminate on the basis of an individual’s sex, age, race, color, creed, national origin, alienage, religion, marital status, pregnancy, sexual orientation or affectional preference, gender identity and expression, disability, genetic trait or predisposition, carrier status, citizenship, veteran or military status and other personal characteristics protected by law. All applications will receive consideration for employment without regard to legally protected characteristics.
For some reason, this makes me think of the screwball comedy His Girl Friday with Cary Grant as hard-boiled newspaper editor-in-chief Walter Burns.
I can picture Walter dictating this Deputy Opinion Editor ad:
“OK, take this down: ‘Wanted: A fall-guy, a chump, a sap, a scapegoat, a Grade-A patsy, a nimrod who will never know what hit him.’ Now, just clean that up a little — you know, the usual — and stick it in the Help Wanted section.”
