Senior Editor/Page One

Job Description

The Baltimore Sun is seeking a sharp, ambitious Senior Editor/Page One to help identify, develop and elevate the most consequential journalism produced by our newsroom.

This is a hands-on editing and story-development role for an experienced journalist with exceptional news judgment, strong accountability instincts and the ability to recognize the story others miss.

The Senior Editor/Page One will look across the newsroom each day for journalism worthy of our most prominent digital and print presentation — and help reporters and editors get it there. That means identifying the strongest angle, recognizing missing reporting, developing smart follow-ups and helping turn promising daily stories into distinctive enterprise and accountability journalism.

We want someone who understands that major journalism does not always require months of reporting. A revealing public record, an overlooked government decision, an audit, a contract, a court filing, a contradiction or the right follow-up question can produce consequential journalism in hours or days.

This editor should constantly be asking: What's the real story? What are we missing? Who made this decision? Who benefited? What did it cost? Who is affected? Who should be held accountable? What can we find out today that our competitors don't know?

The Senior Editor/Page One will work across desks to collaborate closely with assignment editors and reporters, direct or assist with major coverage and help establish a newsroom-wide standard of urgency, ambition and accountability.

Essential Functions

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• Identify the strongest journalism across The Sun's daily report and determine which stories have the potential for prominent digital and Page One treatment.
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• Work with reporters and assignment editors to determine what additional reporting, sourcing, documentation, context or framing can elevate promising stories.
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• Recognize important news quickly — including significant developments that may be buried in press conferences, government meetings, reports, audits, budgets, court filings and public records.
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• Find the larger accountability story behind daily developments.
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• Develop quick-turn accountability and investigative work that can be reported in hours or days rather than reserving enterprise journalism for long-term projects.
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• Look for opportunities involving government spending, contracts, taxes, development, public safety, education, regulatory failures, institutional performance, conflicts of interest, promises versus results and other matters of significant public consequence.
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• Ask who made decisions, who benefited, who paid, what went wrong, and whether leaders and institutions delivered what they promised.
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• Help reporters follow money through budgets, contracts, grants, nonprofits, development agreements, campaign finance records, settlements and other public and private spending.
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• Identify reporting holes before publication, including missing records, sources, data, context, responses, relevant history or evidence.
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• Challenge assumptions and official narratives regardless of their source and ensure conclusions are supported by reporting.
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• Help reporters and editors identify meaningful follow-up stories and prevent consequential journalism from becoming one-day coverage.
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• Generate original story ideas and help develop reporting plans for executing them quickly.
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• Edit high-priority stories for reporting, structure, fairness, accuracy, clarity and impact.
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• Assist in directing major breaking news, including determining what can be published immediately, what needs additional verification and what reporters should pursue next.
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• Help coordinate newsroom-wide coverage when major stories cross traditional beats or departments.
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• Work closely with audience, visuals and other newsroom teams to ensure our strongest journalism is presented effectively and reaches the largest appropriate audience.
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Page One: Page One is both a specific responsibility and an editorial standard for this position. The Senior Editor/Page One will help select and develop journalism for the print front page while maintaining a digital-first approach.The goal is not simply to assemble Page One, but to help create more journalism worthy of it by identifying promising stories early, strengthening reporting and ensuring our strongest work receives thoughtful presentation across platforms.

AI, Technology and Newsgathering: The Baltimore Sun expects journalists to embrace emerging tools that can make reporting and editing faster, deeper and more effective.The Senior Editor/Page One should be an enthusiastic and responsible adopter of AI-assisted tools and help reporters and editors use them effectively. AI should strengthen journalism, not substitute for reporting, verification or editorial judgment. This editor should understand that distinction and model smart, responsible experimentation.

The strongest candidates will have:

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• Significant professional journalism experience, ideally including both reporting and editing.
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• Exceptional news judgment and the ability to recognize consequential stories quickly.
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• Strong accountability and investigative instincts.
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• Experience working with public records, government documents, data, or other primary-source reporting.
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• Excellent structural and line-editing skills.
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• The ability to diagnose reporting gaps and clearly identify what additional work is needed.
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• Strong breaking-news instincts and comfort making decisions under deadline pressure.
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• A record of generating original journalism rather than relying primarily on scheduled events or outside pitches.
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• Demonstrated curiosity about AI, emerging technology and more efficient approaches to reporting and editing.
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• Strong understanding of sourcing, verification, fairness, attribution and journalistic ethics.
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• Comfort working across beats and with journalists of different experience levels.
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• An understanding of digital publishing, audience behavior and effective story presentation.
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• Urgency, curiosity, competitiveness and intellectual independence.
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Salary Range: $85,000 – $110,000

Individual compensation may vary from the target range based on several factors, including experience, internal pay equity, and other relevant business considerations.