Stonebow Media is the leading regional news publisher of The Lincolnite, with a strong content, classifieds and business events offering across Greater Lincolnshire. Our offices are based in central Lincoln and our digital native company has been at the forefront of independent local publishing since it was founded in 2010.

The business is continuing to grow and expand, and our founding editor Daniel Ionescu is now looking for an enthusiastic and experienced editor to continue driving the development of our flagship title, The Lincolnite, and other editorial projects.

The purpose of the role is to drive and implement editorial strategies for acquiring new users and retaining regular readers of Stonebow Media publications through quality content and impactful journalism.

The job will mean you will

• Manage the creation, publication and distribution process of relevant content that will inform and entertain our community of readers
• Monitor email and social inboxes for story leads
• Take in pitches and assign stories from editorial staff you will line manage, as well as multiple freelances and contributors, guiding authors where required
• Monitor news, pick up and assign any follow-ups, and augment coverage with extra deployed resources and/or user content
• Review and edit the assigned and commissioned content, ensure it abides by editorial and legal standards, request any changes, provide feedback
• Schedule, publish and set notifications for the edited content according to the content planning agenda
• Plan and assign/schedule social media & email promotions for content published on our sites
• Organise, plan and ensure there is a steady stream of original and on agenda content throughout the week/month
• Review content analytics and staff performance to develop the editorial team
• Monitor and engage community responses on items published, ensuring a healthy conversation is maintained, dealing with comments/content and users flagged up by users
• Respond and deal with user queries regarding content published on our platforms according to guidelines, including private and public responses
• Commission content from contributors and freelancers within the guidelines and budgets provided
• Manage editorial resources to ensure staff coverage during holidays and sick leave
• Oversee and guide the continuous editorial and personal development of staff, trainees and contributors with content responsibility
• Manage and host regular user/member meetings (in person & remote) on relevant topics to drive in person user and member engagement, involving rest of the team
• Attend business/corporate/networking/conferencing events to represent and promote The Lincolnite and Stonebow Media
• Be an ambassador for The Lincolnite both on and off line, including participating in the monthly user/member meetings, and appearances on in-house or external content (e.g. podcasts)
• Cultivate relationships and networks, and be at the forefront of the issues and themes that are affecting our region
• Work with the commercial and events team to help the sustainability of the news operation and assist editorially the commercial operations

The ideal candidate will have

• Excellent news judgement
• Newsdesk experience at national, agency or regional daily level
• Ability to take clear, sensible decisions under pressure to ensure our content services are timely and reliable
• Strong knowledge of news and current affairs across the UK
• Ability to write, re-write and sub content at speed
• Understand and deliver compelling content for digital native platforms
• Demonstrable knowledge of UK media law
• Knowledge-based confidence to deal with local leaders and politicians (be comfortable – and enjoy – discussing everything from devolution with a council leader to the impact of HR reform with a senior accountant)
• The ability to develop and maintain senior contacts across the region and across industries
• The flair to take those conversations and turn them into news stories or event topics for the commercial and event teams to lead on