Managing Editor (Santa Cruz) in Santa Cruz, California at Lookout Local

About Lookout Local

Lookout Eugene-Springfield’s mission is to provide fair, accurate, and non-partisan news, focusing on the role of business in shaping a community through taxes and jobs. We are committed to reviving local journalism and engaging with the community to reflect their needs and interests. Lookout Eugene-Springfield now approaches its first anniversary, having already achieved great traction -- audience, membership, advertising, and community trust -- It is part of Lookout Local, a now fast-growing, next-generation West Coast-based local news network. Lookout Santa Cruz won the 2024 Pulitzer for Breaking News, and Lookout's fiercely mission-driven, business-driven model is winning wide national notice. Check out our network page: https://lookout.co/network.

Our workplaces are in-person, in-community, collaborative and collegial. We are building a diverse, highly skilled and mission-driven group of journalists, community builders and business people intent on maintaining our culture of learning, growth and community service.

About the role

The Managing Editor is a central newsroom leader responsible for driving editorial excellence across Lookout Santa Cruz’s coverage of Santa Cruz County and, secondarily, the surrounding region. This role requires a proven editor with a track record of elevating ambitious journalism and leading teams of reporters across multiple beats to produce distinctive, high-impact work.

The ideal candidate brings exceptional news judgment, sophisticated story ideation, and rigorous line editing skills — along with a demonstrated ability to coach reporters to do their best work. Just as important, this editor thrives in a fast-paced, digital-first environment and is deeply committed to building a consistently excellent, seven-day-a-week report.

At Lookout, excellence is not occasional — it is expected throughout the day, every day. We serve readers with a mix of investigative and accountability reporting, authoritative beat coverage, breaking news, and service journalism that answers real community questions. The Managing Editor ensures that this work meets a high bar for relevance, clarity, and impact.

We prioritize reporting that connects the dots, explains complex issues, and delivers insight with authority and precision. Whether a story is 500 or 2,500 words, it should be deeply reported, well-sourced, and clearly written. We embrace a range of formats — from narrative and explanatory stories to Q&As, reader-driven formats, and multimedia — always matching the format to the journalism.

Responsibilities

• Editorial Leadership & Team Development
• • Work with the Executive Editor to set the daily and long-term editorial agenda.
  • Lead and manage a team of reporters covering a range of beats, providing clear direction from idea generation through publication.
  • Edit stories with rigor and precision, ensuring clarity, depth, fairness, and distinctiveness.
  • Coach reporters to elevate their reporting, sharpen their focus, and produce ambitious, high-impact journalism.
  • Foster a culture of accountability, creativity, and continuous improvement across the newsroom.
• Story Ideation & Execution
• • Drive a strong pipeline of enterprise, investigative, and beat-driven stories.
  • Ensure daily coverage is urgent, relevant, and aligned with audience needs.
  • Elevate storytelling through structure, framing, and the use of compelling supporting elements (data, visuals, multimedia).
  • Maintain high standards for sourcing, reporting depth, and narrative clarity.
• Community-Centered Journalism
• • Ensure coverage reflects and engages the full diversity of Santa Cruz County.
  • Work with reporters to surface community concerns, questions, and undercovered issues.
  • Collaborate on audience engagement efforts, using feedback and insights to inform coverage.
• Standards & Trust
• • Uphold the highest standards of accuracy, fairness, and independence.
  • Ensure all content is nonpartisan, transparent, and trustworthy.
  • Maintain consistency in voice, tone, and editorial quality across the report.
• Innovation & Digital Execution
• • Embrace and advance digital-first storytelling, distribution, and audience strategies.
  • Work closely with product and audience teams to optimize reach and impact.
  • Use modern tools and platforms to enhance reporting, editing, and presentation.
  • Experiment thoughtfully with new formats, including video and reader-driven journalism.

Qualifications

• At least 7+ years of journalism experience, including 3+ years in a significant editing or newsroom leadership role.
• A proven track record of journalistic excellence, particularly in editing and elevating reporters across multiple beats.
• Demonstrated success leading teams to produce impactful enterprise, investigative, and beat reporting.
• Exceptional news judgment, story sense, and editorial instincts.
• Strong line-editing skills, with the ability to bring clarity, structure, and authority to complex stories.
• Experience managing reporters, providing constructive feedback, and developing talent.
• Deep understanding of — or ability to quickly immerse in — Santa Cruz County and its communities.
• Fluency in digital-first journalism and content management systems (Newspack or similar).
• Ability to balance speed with quality in a deadline-driven environment.
• Commitment to inclusive, community-centered journalism.
• Comfort working in a startup environment that values agility, collaboration, and innovation.
• Strong visual and storytelling instincts, with the ability to collaborate on multimedia presentation.

Pluses:

• Bilingual skills
• Experience with data journalism
• Audio/video production experience

What We Offer:

• Competitive salary and performance-based incentives.
• Full-time benefits include highly competitive medical, dental, and optical benefits, and 401(k) with matching.
• Good PTO allowances
• Stock options in our growing company
• An opportunity to make a significant impact on and contribute to the revival of local journalism.
• A collaborative and mission-driven work environment.