Editor-in-Chief, Chronicle of Philanthropy
The Chronicle of Philanthropy, the premier journalistic newsroom covering the $6 trillion world of nonprofits and foundations, seeks an experienced, ambitious, and innovative editor-in-chief to oversee a significant expansion of its editorial operations. The Chronicle plans to double the size of its newsroom over the next five years, extend its storytelling capabilities on more platforms, build a commons that enables rigorous debate of important issues in the nonprofit world, and expand its collaboration with a range of other journalism organizations around the country and around the globe.
Today, the Chronicle’s website, webinars, and monthly magazine provide news and analysis, trends updates, opinion essays, advice, data, and other information that nonprofit professionals, foundation executives, philanthropists, board members, and others rely on to make decisions and better understand how to deal with challenges and get results that advance the common good.
The Chronicle also plays a critical role in helping the public better understand the impact of the social sector. Its partnership with the Associated Press enables many Chronicle news articles to reach a global audience, and its fellowship program — about to enter its second year — provides local news outlets the skills and coaching they need to put the spotlight on organizations supported by governments, corporations, wealthy donors, and everyday Americans.
Because the social sector demands more attention and scrutiny, the Chronicle announced in 2022 that it had adopted an extensive plan for growth so it could expand its reach. It has raised more than $6 million to become an independent nonprofit organization. We chose the nonprofit structure because it allows us to focus our journalism even more keenly on social impact. That is the key responsibility of the new Editor-in-Chief, who will report to Stacy Palmer, a founding editor of the Chronicle who has been named CEO and will now oversee the entire organization.
Our newsroom, which now has 21 staff members, prides itself on its independence, excellence in reporting, and collaboration among staff members. It is committed to attracting a diverse workforce and reaching out to the people, organizations, and regions of the United States that are too often overlooked by journalists and by organized philanthropy. The editor-in-chief will lead talented, creative, and compassionate people covering an essential part of society — and usher in growth and transformation — offering an unparalleled opportunity in journalism.
About the Opportunity
As Editor-in-Chief, you’ll lead journalists in shining a light on one of the most important yet little understood spheres of society.
One in 11 Americans works for organizations like the Salvation Army, the World Wildlife Fund, the ACLU, the NAACP, the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation, and institutions such as the Metropolitan Museum of Art, Dana Farber Cancer Center, and Stanford University.
But unlike in business, government, law, and other spheres, journalists do little to show how those organizations operate or how corporations, foundations, wealthy philanthropists, and others fund social-change efforts on issues including climate change, racial justice, health care, poverty, and education.
Your priority as leader of the Chronicle’s newsroom will be to ensure decision makers, donors, volunteers, voters, and others better understand the important contributions nonprofits make, and explain the hurdles they encounter. You’ll oversee accountability and explanatory stories, as well as in-depth projects designed to ensure tax-exempt institutions live up to their responsibilities to society. And you’ll work to build our opinion and commentary section to ensure new ideas get attention and debate.
What’s more, you’ll help ensure that our editorial team provides leaders of these organizations — and other nonprofit professionals — with the news, trend analyses, forecasting, and benchmarking they need to achieve greater impact. Service journalism is a key part of our mission, and you will be committed to helping our audience do their job better by providing news and insight.
You’ll collaborate with our business and tech teams to develop new ways to serve our audiences (newsletters, podcasts, videos, and more) and to ensure our digital presence keeps up with our audience’s needs and preferences.
When we asked our staff what was important in the new editor, they urged us to find a leader who:
- Powerfully offers a clear vision of what comes next, understanding and respecting our strengths, helping us move into new areas, leading our storytelling in new ways, and making smart strategic choices about the needs of our audience.
- Has a track record of leading outstanding journalists and is committed to making sure every editorial decision is made with integrity.
- Collaborates naturally while respecting the individual skills that each reporter and editor brings to the table and enables a distributed newsroom to connect and unite to produce strong content.
- Works adroitly with other organization leaders, including the CEO, chief revenue officer, and chief technology officer.
- Understands audience engagement and what it takes to get sustained attention on digital platforms.
We prefer candidates who have a strong knowledge of the social sector, but it is also helpful to have a background in covering business, government, or key areas that are important in the nonprofit world, such as education, health care, or the environment.
This is a fully remote position.
Responsibilities
Lead & Innovate in Our Newsroom
- Work with the CEO to establish editorial vision, strategy, and goals, communicating them to all newsroom staff, and translating them into clear and compelling priorities for reporters and editors to pursue high-impact journalism.
- Motivate, develop, coach, and inspire editorial staff.
- Manage day-to-day affairs of the newsroom, working with the CEO and business leaders to deploy editorial resources effectively to implement the Chronicle’s strategy and goals and meet budget goals.
- Uphold and communicate journalistic quality, ethics, and standards and work with leaders throughout the organization to ensure that all of our work on all platforms demonstrates a commitment to integrity and social impact.
- Establish and refine the editorial organizational structure in partnership with the CEO:
- Delegate tasks appropriately to senior leaders to strengthen the newsroom and empower journalists and editors.
- Work with editors to set story priorities, ensure day-to-day operations run smoothly, and provide top edits for stories that deserve extra attention.
- Define and communicate roles and responsibilities across the newsroom: make decisions on whom to hire and promote and how to ensure all staff members are performing at their best.
- Carry out equitable and effective hiring and promotion practices to ensure our staff have the diverse backgrounds and perspectives that we need to serve our audiences well.
- Bring new ideas and an entrepreneurial spirit to continuously refine and streamline the newsroom process.
- Provide vision for the brand, look, feel and voice of the Chronicle’s editorial products and keep focusing on ways to make our journalism inviting, informative, and compelling:
- Collaborate with visual and story editors to make engaging headlines, photography, clean design, and informative, easy-to-read graphics a key part of our storytelling.
- Build new skills among newsroom members so we can provide video, audio, and other platforms that meet the needs of our audience.
- Represent the Chronicle to external audiences, including at conferences and events, and to other media, acting as both an expert analyst of the nonprofit sector and a leading thinker about how journalism can better improve coverage of the nonprofit world.
Expand Audiences and Products
- Guide strategies for producing work that builds and expands existing and new Chronicle audiences in partnership with the revenue, audience, and product teams.
- Ensure overall excellence of editorial products and reader experience while focusing sharply on audience knowledge, trends, needs, engagement, and expansion.
- Shape ideas for new editorial-driven products, such as newsletters and podcasts, that can help us better serve our audiences and enhance our revenue opportunities.
- Work with the CEO and CRO to identify and champion event and audience opportunities to extend the brand and ensure that editorial content in these venues is consistently strong.
- Get to know top and emerging leaders in the nonprofit and foundation world and represent the editorial team at industry conferences and in meetings with potential sponsors of content that allow us to sustain and expand our news organization.
- Work with the CEO and partnerships editor to develop strategic relationships with other media organizations and nonprofit associations.
Qualifications
- At least five years of proven success in leading an exceptional journalism organization, and a minimum of 10 years of reporting and editing experience. You should demonstrate that you are capable of overseeing a broad range of work: investigative, explanatory, news, opinion, and service journalism.
- Passion for issues that drive the nonprofit world; experience as a journalist covering these issues or as a staff member at a nonprofit will help you excel in this role.
- Experience serving an audience of professionals, especially those who focus on education, the environment, social sector, or other parts of the nonprofit world is a plus.
- Solid experience in digital innovation and managing a multi-platform news operation and using analytics to track progress.
- Experience with visual storytelling and interest in editorial design and photography.
- An entrepreneurial mindset and enthusiasm for collaborating with business colleagues to develop ideas that can advance growth while maintaining editorial integrity.
- Highest journalistic and personal ethics.
- Commitment to diversity, equity, and inclusion.
- Exceptional leadership skills and emotional intelligence.
- Track record building cultures where excellence and humane leadership go hand-in-hand.