Copy Editor, Roanoke, Va.

Copy Editor/Designer

The Roanoke Times is looking for a smart, agile journalist to work across sections and platforms as part of its night desk. This position requires editing and design, with an emphasis on sports copy editing. Strong candidates will be able to communicate effectively and compromise with reporters, metro editors, designers and copy editors to make reader-centered decisions about content and packaging.

The ideal candidate will have keen news judgment, an eye for detail, strong language skills and the ability to write compelling display type in print and online. We're looking for someone who is collegial and collaborative and who won't be constrained by a title. We’re want someone who is flexible -- who won’t mind editing sports and news tonight, laying out inside pages tomorrow and outputting pages the night after that.

The Roanoke Times night desk is a universal desk that handles copy and design for all sections -- news, sports and features -- of the newspaper. The person in this position will need to become proficient in our print publishing system as well as our online content management system and how the two work together to produce the daily online report and breaking news.

Members of the night desk team work nights, holidays and weekends. On occasion, a midafternoon meeting might be required as part of project work.

Essential duties and responsibilities

* Edit news, sports and features copy and write display type in accordance with AP style, the stylebook of The Roanoke Times, and Webster's New World Fourth Edition. (An editing test will be required.)
* Design and paginate sports and news pages.
* Update roanoke.com as news breaks or stories develop and in a maintenance capacity to shepherd the posting of the print report to the website.
* Deliver news, information, stories, updates and other forms of coverage to our community via Twitter, Facebook, blogs, e-mail updates, text message, breaking-news e-mail and any other platform we employ in the future.
* Stay current on our coverage, that of the competition, and the big headlines from national and international news.


Requirements

* Bachelor's degree
* Experience at a daily news organization.
* Basic knowledge of sports and sports editing style.
* Ability to lay out basic pages, often planned by someone else.
* Proven ability to write clearly, tightly and accurately -- for headlines, cutlines, promos, briefs, updates, write-throughs, tweets, text messages and more -- and to meet tight deadlines doing so.
* A visual eye and a sense of what's missing, what's needed and how the pieces of a package work together.
* Ability to be decisive and to adapt quickly and comfortably to change.
* Curiosity, creativity, enthusiasm and interest in new technology and finding ways to improve our strategies.
* Experience with Adobe InCopy and InDesign as well as Internet content management systems is a plus.

All applicants must apply online at www.jobs.roanoke.com. In addition please send a resume to Ellen Moseley at ellen.moseley@roanoke.com.

 

Full disclosure: I do some correspondent work for this paper. That being said, the sports editor's a sharp guy and it does a pretty good job covering Va. Tech, Virginia, the ACC and the prep scene. You could certainly do worse than this place.

 

Do they still do every page in color?

 

Beautiful location nestled in the Blue Ridge Mountains, and surprisingly rich in terms of things to do (restaurant and retail-wise). Salem, just to the west, hosts some Division III national events on a yearly basis. Underrated city. Plus, if you're into NASCAR, Martinsville isn't even an hour south of there and Bristol's a couple hours southwest.

 

There are some good dudes in the sports department there, but I can't really tell from the ad how much you'd work with them.

 

Never worked at the Times on anything but a part-time basis, but I spent the first 18 years of my life in the Noke, so I'm happy to answer any questions on the area.

Pretty sure they are still full-color.