Community Editor Job at Association TRENDS in Charlottesville

Charlottesville Tomorrow is growing our team in 2025 and seeks a community editor. This is the first time that the nonprofit news organization has an operational budget of well over $1 million.

The community editor will work across departments to communicate our impact, goals, and processes to our stakeholders. The community editor reports to the CEO and works closely with the managing editor, director of development, and product and tech lead, while also liaising with community members and our partners at Charlottesville Inclusive Media. This is a leadership role in the newsroom, ideal for a sharp editor who likes to work with people at different stages in their careers and wants to help build newsroom operations that support our mission.

We work hard to create a healthy and inclusive work environment that is rethinking how local news is produced, both for the sake of journalists and business staff doing the work and the communities we serve.

While we are outlining job responsibilities and skills here, above all we are looking for someone who wants to join our team to help build on that culture.

Responsibilities

• Be the front line for communications with community members and stakeholders.
• Write internal and external communications, including From the Newsroom pieces, grant applications and reports, and narratives about our impact in collaboration with the team.
• Use qualitative and quantitative data to foreground community needs in editorial and operational decision-making.
• Run community listening and surveys, with editorial and product staff.
• Run and build out social media products with editors and the product and technology lead.
• Occasionally attend events as a representative of Charlottesville Tomorrow.
• Help with the overall development and direction of a growing news organization.

Charlottesville Tomorrow is a community-driven, socially conscious news organization. We serve our neighbors by connecting them to each other and to the issues that affect them most.

This is a newsroom at the forefront of local news. It’s a place for talented journalists and big thinkers to dig into mission-driven work that impacts people’s lives regularly.

Our reporters and editors dig deeply into issues that affect our community, regularly producing work that highlights issues often ignored by other media. We center our organization and news processes on our values — truth, community, and equity — and we work to improve the health of our local news community and ecosystem through our inclusive practices in hiring, journalism, and partnership.

Our newsroom covers the issues that are most important in our community with a focus on race and equity and reaches a large share of our market through our free email subscriptions, news apps, social media, and events.

Location

Charlottesville is a college town with many opportunities for learning and recreation, and good quality of life. It is a competitive and fast-changing small media market with high visibility in state and national news cycles. And it is a fast-growing, multicultural node in the region’s knowledge and finance economy. The quality of living is high, and it is a short drive from Washington D.C. and Richmond.

This is not a remote position. Our team lives and works in the communities we cover in central Virginia and regularly spends time in our Charlottesville newsroom. This position will also require some travel for meetings and to represent Charlottesville Tomorrow at events.

How to apply

Our application process is designed to help us find candidates who will thrive in our newsroom.

The first step is a written application. Candidates who progress should expect two to three rounds of interviews and a possible paid assessment. This job listing will be open to applicants until we fill the position.

To get started, please tell us or provide:

• Why are you interested in working with Charlottesville Tomorrow?
• Please share a piece of marketing, community building, or journalist writing that you felt connected with a stakeholder. How did you make it and what made it successful?

To apply, send your resume and/or LinkedIn profile and answers to these questions to hiring [at] thedpi.org, with the subject line “Charlottesville Tomorrow Community Editor.” Due to the volume of inquiries we receive, we will not be able to answer emailed questions about this role.

Skills

We do not expect any one candidate to have all of these skills or experiences, but here are some things we are looking for:

• Clear and convincing writing, including the ability to craft headlines and calls to action.
• Excellent communication skills, in writing, email, and spoken communication.
• Project management or day-to-day production experience.
• Ability to meet tight deadlines and see the big picture of what we’re providing to communities.
• The ability to communicate with and earn the trust of people from diverse communities.
• Personal or professional experience in multiple cultural settings and/or non-English language skills.
• The ability to work with a diverse team, help boost colleagues and seek help when you need it.
• Comfort with websites, spreadsheets, and technical tools, and the ability to learn new systems.

We are looking for someone who loves to take in a lot of information and make it accessible to our many stakeholders, from community members to donors to foundations. We are seeking an editor/writer who prioritizes what matters to our diverse communities, can effectively communicate what they learn from communities, and help steer decision-making in pursuit of our mission.

We seek someone who understands that being visible, present, and accountable with our community and knowledgeable about its people is core to any journalistic success. We are looking for a communicator who understands that all good work starts with being a good human being and that the future of local journalism relies on including a diversity of voices at every level.