Assignment Editor – Contract

This is a fully remote position, open to applicants in United Kingdom.

📋 Description

• Oversee the overnight and early-morning news agenda tailored for North American viewers.

• Determine story leads, selection, framing, headlines, packaging, and placement.

• Experiment with editorial packaging to enhance audience engagement.

• Manage transitions with the US desk, taking over ongoing threads and transferring in-progress stories.

• Ensure the website and app remain up-to-date and credible through breaking news, severe weather, and developing stories.

• Take on outstanding assignments from the U.S. news team.

• Act as the senior editorial decision-maker during shifts and establish publication standards.

• Uphold accuracy, quality, and voice under time constraints.

• Collaborate with the US newsroom, video, and product teams across various time zones.

• Develop handoff procedures for logging, flagging, and escalation.

• Represent the overnight shift in planning for scheduled events.

• Own the overnight and early-morning engagement objectives.

• Utilize analytics to inform timing, packaging, and story composition.

• Optimize headlines, alerts, and modules for the overnight audience.

⛳️ Requirements

• 8+ years of experience in a newsroom, including substantial time making live editorial decisions during shifts.

• Strong editorial judgment with the ability to run a desk and make final decisions without a senior editor present.

• Experience in coordinating across desks or time zones, ensuring smooth handoffs and no dropped threads.

• Comfortable with audience analytics, including Chartbeat, Parse.ly, and Google Analytics.

• Familiarity with North American news and audiences, or a proven ability to quickly get up to speed.

• Self-motivated and composed under pressure; capable of working independently while maintaining standards during breaking news events.

• Eligibility to work in the UK.

• Availability to reliably cover the US overnight / early-morning time slot.

• Preferred: fluency with current engagement and distribution tools.

• Preferred: experience in building and managing workflows for a 24/7 or breaking-news environment.

• Preferred: experience in managing editorial talent across both text and video.

🏝️ Benefits

• Contract role.

• Remote work arrangement based in the UK.