Assistant Editor, Data And Graphics

Join the hundreds of talented and innovative team members who are making an impact every day at California Times, incorporating Los Angeles Times and San Diego Union-Tribune, two of the most iconic media brands in the nation. Whether you love to tell compelling stories or want to drive our award-winning powerhouse in new directions, the Los Angeles Times team is the place to be.
Summary
The Los Angeles Times is looking for an assistant editor to join our Data and Graphics Department.

This team has a diversity of talents, backgrounds and specialized skills that allow us to deeply report with data, craft clarifying visuals, experiment and innovate with code, and provide a utility for our community. We work on projects that have attracted millions of readers, sparked government reforms and helped win some of our industry’s highest awards.
We prioritize visual and data elements that are fundamental to the journalism, examples of which can be seen in coverage of the coronavirus pandemic, California’s extreme drought, our local elections, the unfolding of the James Webb satellite, the deeper issues raised by the 2020 protests and numerous other topics.
You’ll work closely with journalists on the Data and Graphics desk and across the newsroom to shape, prepare and edit content that drives impactful journalism and engages our audience. Along with the other assistant editors and department management, you will help implement a coverage strategy that includes breaking news, long-term enterprise, investigative data-driven interactive projects, explanatory visuals and utilitarian news applications.
You will collaborate on ambitious, experimental and innovative visual- or data-driven projects with partners from across the newsroom. This involves coordinating with design, photo, audience, video, homepage, product and other departments to plan the rollout and promotion of our work.
On the Data and Graphics desk, assistant editors are hands-on – aiding reporters, reviewing code and analysis and leading trainings – with the focus on both publishing great work and helping reporters develop their abilities. You may significantly contribute to reporting, design and development or pitch and produce your own work on occasion. The Data and Graphics team prizes generalists who learn through their projects and don’t expect any one person to be an expert in all aspects.
Responsibilities

• Edit content, including line-editing copy, assessing visuals and reviewing code
• Work with Data and Graphics journalists and small groups of cross-departmental reporters to ensure they produce accurate, fair and technically excellent journalism on deadline
• Manage projects, including setting priorities, assigning work and defining milestones

Qualifications

• Ability to multitask and complete work under sometimes intense deadline pressure
• Experience with news graphics (or equivalent work) that incorporates data analysis, graphics and interactive design
• Strong writing and editing skills, including both story conceptualization and accurate, grammatical line editing of copy and ability to edit copy at a sophisticated level
• Excellent organizational, planning and project management skills
• Demonstrated understanding of the best practices required to create visual- and data-driven projects that show creativity and the ability to communicate information in a visually effective and engaging manner
• Demonstrated excellence in news judgment, either through previous editing experience or a minimum of four years of journalism experience at a reputable news publication or media website Experience in exercising strong judgment around ethical and legal considerations

Preferred Qualifications

• Interest and experience in leading trainings and mentoring peers
• Working knowledge of a specialized skill such as, but not limited to, statistical analysis, front-end development, machine learning, illustration, GitHub actions, 3D rendering, game design, databases, coding bots, UX design, animation, cartography, APIs and information design
• Experience with shaping standardized workflows, robust style guides and templated code
• Success leading small teams at planning and executing digital projects

This position is classified as Assistant Editor, Graphics & Data within the Los Angeles Times Guild and will be based in El Segundo, Calif. Occasional night and weekend work is required.
The L.A. Times is an equal opportunity employer and welcomes expressions of interest from people with diverse backgrounds and perspectives. The pay scale for this position is $97,178 to $130,000. This is the pay scale range the Company reasonably expects to pay for this position at the time of this posting. Compensation will be determined based on skills, qualifications and experience of the applicant along with the requirements of the position. Please visit our career site to view the benefits available to our employees as well as our company history, achievement, values, mission and more.
The Company is a mandatory vaccination employer for COVID-19 and its variants. The Company requires that its employees be fully vaccinated as of their start date. If you require medical or religious accommodation, we will engage in the interactive process with you. Proof of vaccination will be required prior to start. If we make you an offer and you are not yet vaccinated, we will accommodate a delay in start date.
Applicants should send a resume, cover letter and work samples to Data and Graphics Director Hanna Sender. A cover letter should introduce your best work and provide a short summary of the role(s) you played in creating each work sample. We want to know about any specialized skill or interest you would bring to the team and, more importantly, what you’re interested in learning next. If your experience is not a perfect match for the preferred qualifications but you’re passionate about Data and Graphics in journalism, we encourage you to apply and use your cover letter to tell us how your experiences will translate to the role.
Please note, the opportunity to attach additional documents appears on the third screen and is labeled “Upload.”

Thank you for your interest in joining our team at the Los Angeles Times! We look forward to reviewing your application.