Career Center

Executive Editor | The Buffalo News  

Western New York’s largest news organization has an opportunity for a dynamic, digitally focused executive editor with a tireless passion for building audience through exceptional and engaging journalism. 

The opportunity

For more than a century, The Buffalo News has connected the region, serving as the hub of community conversations for Western New York as the region has continued to change. Our next editor will embrace that change and help guide The Buffalo News as the landscape of journalism and culture continue to adapt.

The executive editor will welcome the opportunity to grow a diverse newsroom as well as expand its coverage to reflect the communities it serves in the Buffalo-Niagara Falls area. We are seeking someone with a strong perspective on diverse, inclusive and equitable audience-driven journalism. The executive editor will play an essential role in determining the editorial vision, resource allocation and daily direction necessary to make that vision a reality for The Buffalo News. This hands-on leader must be an excellent coach, mentor and recruiter to strengthen the skills of a talented news staff. The ideal candidate will nurture an innovative culture and understands how to drive editorial growth.

A successful candidate will have extensive management experience and a proven track record of inspiring journalists to create work of the highest caliber in watchdog, investigative, enterprise, data-based and breaking news reporting.  We want the next leader of The Buffalo News to engage and build trust with readers and all audiences.

Buffalo is a close-knit community, and the executive editor is a high-profile ambassador of The Buffalo News’ mission and civic role. The successful candidate will have a vision for expanding this role to evangelize the essential role of journalism and build bridges to communities that have traditionally been underrepresented in The News.

Candidate profile 

The ideal candidate should have the following professional qualities and skills:

• Set overall strategic vision and direction of the newsroom across print and digital platforms and seek new ways of offering content.
• Cultivate relationships with key community stakeholders and sources; foster engagement between newsroom staff members and the communities they serve.
• Train and mentor a newsroom team.
• Be able to clearly articulate and communicate a vision for high-impact journalism and be in the moment to capture audience growth on emerging platforms.
• Recruit and retain some of the industry’s top talent.
• Demonstrate a deep commitment to the highest standards of journalistic ethics and has a record of producing journalism of significance.
• Has the ability to recognize and prioritize competing needs on various platforms to successfully leverage newsroom resources for outstanding results.
• Engages in setting a news-gathering strategy that invites members of the public to participate and expands the diverse voices and perspectives shaping editorial coverage.

• Manage for results in a metrics-driven environment.
• Clear understanding of the First Amendment and the highest regard for upholding those standards.

• Establish and enforce newsroom policies, procedures, workflows and deadlines.

Preferred skills and experience:

• 15-plus years as a working journalist
• 10-plus years in a management role at a news organization

• Experience successfully leading a large, complex, high-volume and high-quality newsroom, including reporters, columnists, photographers, videographers and editors across beats and platforms. 

• Degree in journalism or relevant field.

About The Buffalo News  

The Buffalo News has boldly transformed itself into a digitally focused organization, powering the region’s leading news platforms with high-impact journalism.  Between all print and digital platforms, The Buffalo News reaches 80% of its primary market each week. The Buffalo News was a 2015 finalist for the Pulitzer Prize in breaking news, and its current editorial cartoonist was a Pulitzer winner, the third Buffalo News cartoonist to capture the prize.

Why Join Us?

The Buffalo News is a division of Lee Enterprises, Inc. Lee is a leading provider of high-quality local news, with 77 daily newspapers in 26 states that have print, digital and e-replica versions. Lee's newspapers have a combined circulation of more than 1.2 million daily. Our digital sites attract more than 44 million unique visits monthly. We also have a rapidly growing roster of digital products for consumers, and are committed to aggressive digital growth.

Lee Enterprises offers competitive wages in a dynamic, interesting work environment with career growth opportunities.  We offer an extensive benefit program that can be personalized to your needs. Our benefit program includes medical, dental, vision, short and long-term disability, company provided life insurance and supplemental life insurance. In addition, we offer a 401K retirement plan with company match.  We also offer generous paid time off to allow the flexibility to balance personal life and work.  This includes paid parental leave for new parents.  

Lee Enterprises is proud to be an equal opportunity employer. We respect and celebrate diversity and are committed to creating an inclusive environment for all employees. For more information about Lee and to apply online, check us out at www.lee.net.