Managing Editor

Managing Editor, The Mary Sue

Help redefine a pop culture institution for a new era of digital media

About The Mary Sue

The Mary Sue is known for feminist-leaning pop culture and geek media coverage that celebrates women, diversity, and LGBTQIA+ voices, and takes entertainment and fandom seriously as cultural forces. We're now building the next chapter of that legacy: repositioning around what's actually blowing up in the worlds of online culture, entertainment, politics, and current events. We're covering them all with the same sharp lens that's always defined us, and moving from a search-first model to a multimedia one, while still adhering to best practices for Search and Discover.

TV, movies, and entertainment stay core to what we do, but we're reframing how we cover them: through what's going viral, what generates genuine conversation, and what earns reach on the platforms that matter to us now, not just what works on Google. Organic search still matters to us, and good SEO practice remains part of how we work day to day, but they're no longer what shapes our entire strategy.

Digital media is changing fast, and we're excited about it. Changes in the publishing landscape are opening up new ways to reach an audience, even as shifts in organic search and the rise of AI are eroding the models and methods that worked in the past. We want someone who sees this as an opportunity to build something different and meet the fans where they are, with the content they're looking for.

The Role

This is an opportunity to reshape a brand with real history and a strong voice. You'll take a team of 20+ staff writers, freelance writers, and subeditors, publishing between 600 and 1,000 articles a month, and lead them as the team grows in size and navigates new distribution models, platforms, wider coverage, and a rapid growth trajectory.

Syndicated news is fast becoming a primary distribution model, with platforms like MSN and Newsbreak being important to The Mary Sue's growth. Social-first news and commentary is a smaller but fast-growing part of the brand's focus and future. With this in mind, this role needs to be excellent at framing content for various distribution platforms and genuinely invested in building multiple areas at once. The right candidate should be comfortable making calls based on what the data says is working on different platforms and traffic referral sources.

This role will involve a high volume of editing early on, with your focus shifting over time toward developing the team so output and publishing doesn't depend on you alone.

What You'll Do

• Lead the reinvention of how The Mary Sue covers entertainment, politics, and internet culture, for a team of writers publishing at scale
• Build out our multimedia approach to journalism and reporting, including short-form video, and own the strategy to scale this growth opportunity
• Develop robust story ideation and sourcing workflows/strategies across various platforms (including TikTok, Reddit, social media) to make sure The Mary Sue is ahead of the curve on finding the next big story, not just reacting to other publishers
• Coach writers toward becoming confident self-publishers and copyeditors in their own right
• Recruit new writers as the team grows
• Ensure The Mary Sue meets its publishing guidelines and contributes to conversation ethically and accurately
• Work directly with syndication platforms like MSN, Newsbreak, or Yahoo, taking the time to understand what works where
• Plan and assign coverage built primarily around written content and article performance, with social as a growing secondary focus over time
• Keep organic search and SEO best practices in good health as a maintained part of the business, without allowing them to dominate your entire publishing strategy
• Own the data and economics behind the coverage: what we're spending, why, and what the return looks like

What We're Looking For

• Editorial leadership experience, ideally in fast-moving news, culture, or entertainment media. Experience overseeing, curating, and distributing editorial-first video is a major plus
• Syndication experience (MSN, Yahoo, Newsbreak, Smart News, or similar) is a strong plus, given how central syndication is to our model today
• Strong, adaptable people management and recruitment
• An editor who invests in developing writers, not just editing their copy
• Comfortable working with data and pulling traffic and revenue numbers from multiple sources, using them to drive editorial decisions
• Understands cost, spend, and margin, not just pageviews
• Social instincts across Facebook, Instagram, TikTok, and YouTube, with an interest in building and growing channels
• Alignment with The Mary Sue's voice and legacy
• A bonus if you bring experience in travel or lifestyle/wellness content and can see how it fits our brand
• Newsletter experience and strategy is a plus, though not essential

Ready to help lead this next chapter? Please send us your resume, along with a cover letter that tells us who you are and what makes you a good fit for this role. We'd love to hear your pitch for The Mary Sue, where you'd take our coverage, and how you'd make it happen.

Equal Opportunities

The Mary Sue is committed to being an inclusive and welcoming place to work. We encourage applications from people of all backgrounds, including but not limited to race, ethnicity, national origin, age, disability, religion, gender identity and expression, and sexual orientation. LGBTQI+ candidates are warmly welcomed and encouraged to apply.