I’m always surprised at how the questions and phone calls I get kind of come in waves of specific topics.
The topic that it seems I’m getting asked the most about right now is “will I share our job descriptions?”
That’s a hard one for me because if you ask those who have worked with me, we really don’t have set job descriptions and I’m not sure I’ve ever really told someone what exactly his or her job is.
But when I came to Washingtonpost.Newsweek Interactive, all of the positions that were going to be on our new products team had to be posted, so some sort of job descriptions had to be written for the job postings. I wanted these job postings to have a certain attitude, and our HR director at WPNI also wanted to make sure the postings had the correct tone for our company.
There was a fair amount of compromise on both sides (and all you have to do is read this post for our summer interns to see why), but I’m still fairly happy with what we came up with.
I’m not going to post all of the job descriptions and postings we put together. Instead, I thought I would post the job descriptions for our team’s main editor/producer and the posting for our team’s programmer.
BTW — these jobs have long been filled. I’m only posting them here so that others can see what we were looking for.
I also think it’s interesting to compare the more formal job description of the editor’s position that you see below with the blog posting that I wrote about what our online managing editor’s duties were when we were in Naples, Lawrence and Topeka.
Anyway, here goes …
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Multiplatform Editor/Producer
Washingtonpost.Newsweek Interactive is looking for a Multiplatform Editor/Producer to join our new team aimed at the rapid development of online content, tools and strategies. This Editor will work with a small collaborative team built lean and nimble.
This is a senior level position accountable for conceiving, producing and readying multimedia features, including text, audio, video and still images, either within online sites or for emerging technologies such as wireless media and downloadable audio, video or audio-visual broadcasts.
The ideal candidate will have an extensive and solid new media journalism background. You will be presenting multimedia in a variety of formats, helping manage day-to-day project activities from an editorial standpoint, and working quickly and effectively on multiple projects from beginning to completion.
You must be at ease working both as part of a team and independently. You must have impeccable attention to detail, so that we can trust you to produce excellent work without close supervision.
The Multiplatform Editor/Producer will be focused on creating and overseeing the creation of content on any and all of WPNI’s publications (washingtonpost.com, slate.com, budgettravelonline.com, and newsweek.com), both at the production and management levels. You will be able to help generate ideas for projects, make sure other members of the team are staying on task and help to make sure deadlines are met.
You will play a substantial role in the journalism aspects of these projects, gathering information and writing stories. It is therefore essential that you be able to write clean copy without much need for editing. The ideal candidate will have strong knowledge of Associated Press style and the ability to write well for different platforms.
You also must have the experience, knowledge and ability to work within the standard operating procedures of a traditional newsroom in a way that helps support all of the companies’ media strategies. It is imperative that you be able to handle pressure and stress with grace and diplomacy.
Necessary skills include, but are not limited to:
— HTML;
— General multimedia editing (Photoshop, iMovie/Final Cut,Audacity/Audition/SoundEdit);
— General computing (text editors, spreadsheets, FTP, etc.); and
— The ability to write clean copy.
Typically, the Multiplatform Editor/Producer also will have five or more years experience, strong leadership skills and strong subject matter and technical expertise.
We embrace a highly creative, non-traditional work environment. We love to work fast and have fun, with the time between having a great idea and that idea being added to one of our sites being measured in days, if not hours. So, if you learn things quickly, want to spend time with talented and imaginative people and build amazing Web content, then this is the place for you.
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Lead Programmer
Washingtonpost.Newsweek Interactive is looking for a Lead Programmer to join our new team aimed at the rapid development of online content, tools and strategies. This Lead Programmer will work with a small collaborative team built lean and nimble.
We will build Web sites that embrace relational databases in ways they’ve rarely been used, coupled with broadband-centric multimedia content that all works together in a platform-independent manner. Think Internet-based applications that cross from computers to mobile phones to iPods to Sony PSPs, and you’re beginning to get the picture. And that’s really just scratching the surface of possibilities.
We’re big believers in and contributors to the open-source community. Our primary development platform is Python (mod_python) and PostgreSQL, with a particular emphasis on using the Django Web framework. Our Lead Programmer should be fluent in these technologies, but experience with the complete Web stack — (X)HTML, CSS, JavaScript, Apache, etc… — is expected. The ideal candidate will also share our vision to build sites and applications that have an impact on real users at both the local and national level.
You must be at ease working both as part of a team and independently. You must have impeccable attention to detail, so that we can trust you to produce excellent work without close supervision.
This is a very senior level software engineer that may, as required, lead projects. The ideal candidate will have high-level abilities in software design and architecture and a strong grasp of software and system interrelationships.
Our Lead Programmer must be able to set the technical “vision” and design specifications of assigned projects and serves as lead engineer in implementation. This person will be relied upon to solve highly complex problems and to develop programs and systems that have little to no precedent.
Typically, the Lead Programmer will have five or more years experience.
We embrace a highly creative, non-traditional work environment. We love to work fast and have fun, with the time between having a great idea and that idea being added to one of our sites being measured in days, if not hours. So, if you learn things quickly, want to spend time with talented and imaginative people and build amazing Web content, then this is the place for you.
Rob Curley 