ASSOCIATE
EDITOR
for Represent: The Voice of Youth in Care, an award-winning, 40-page bi-monthly magazine written by and for youth living in foster care (national circ. 10,000). Represent is published by Youth Communication, a nonprofit youth development and publishing program.
The associate editor will work one-on-one with a diverse and challenging teen staff to develop personal and reported stories for the magazine. The associate editor will also co-teach a summer writing workshop with the editor and facilitate group meetings and projects. Other duties include researching story ideas, copyediting, and mentoring. Salary $37-$41K, depending on experience & skills, plus good benefits.
Interviews will be scheduled on a rolling basis until the position is filled. Please give us necessary contact information. We will contact only those candidates we intend to interview. Please read more about Youth Communication and Represent at www.youthcomm.org before applying.
To apply, send cover letter, resume, and two writing samples to: Represent, 224 W. 29th St., 2nd fl, New York, NY 10001. People of color are strongly encouraged to apply. No calls or email, please.
QUALIFICATIONS
The two editors of Represent work intensively with a group of young people between the ages of 14 and 21 to shape a magazine that reflects the experiences and concerns of youth in foster care. Our writers have a lot to say, but often have very marginal skills and little or no journalism experience. Most of them are struggling with significant emotional issues related to their family and foster care experiences. The ideal candidate would be intuitive and empathic with a deep interest in youth development and in issues affecting foster youth, and excellent writing, editing, research, and teaching skills. The ability to plan and meet deadlines is essential.
This job requires the ability to meet high standards and work effectively in a loosely structured environment in which broad goals have been determined, but in which the editor has a large measure of autonomy and responsibility for figuring out how to reach them. The associate editor must be able to handle unpredictability and to take the initiative to seek information and support. Working with youth who have experienced trauma is emotionally challenging.
The associate editor must also have the ability and desire to work as part of a team, in partnership with a co-editor and, to a lesser extent, with other editorial and production staff. The associate editor must have strong interpersonal communication skills and the ability to collaborate productively.
A high degree of self-awareness and the ability to seek support when needed is essential.
RESPONSIBILITIES
The editor and associate editor work closely together to produce copy for Represent, which is published bi-monthly. Under the direction of the editor, the associate editor is responsible for a range of duties, from researching story ideas to helping writers develop stories to proofreading final page proofs. The following is a list of major responsibilities in their approximate order of importance:
Work with & Train Teen Writers. At any given time you will be developing one-on-one collaborative relationships with up to a dozen volunteer teen writers. You’ll help them explore their lives and experiences, develop and focus their ideas, and guide their reporting as they interview their peers and adult experts. You will occasionally accompany them to events. Most importantly, however, you’ll meet with them regularly and provide careful readings and detailed written comments on their writing, helping them work through as many as a dozen drafts of each story.
Because many of our stories are personal essays, you will work closely with writers to help them identify and describe the key emotions and experiences they want to convey. Editors often take on a quasi-counseling role as they help guide writers through their stories and their lives.
Edit Student Work. You will work collaboratively with each writer to find the form, structure, style, and story length appropriate to the topic, the writer’s ability, and the interest of our readers. You will edit a range of stories, including personal essays, reported stories, and reviews. You will also work with a range of writers, including teens who don’t know when to stop writing and teens who need to have each paragraph pried out of them. One of the most important aspects of the job is to find a way of working with each writer that is comfortable and effective for both of you.
In addition to helping shape writers’ stories as they write them, you will be expected to final edit each story for clarity, fairness, accuracy, grammar, usage, and style. It is also important to provide thoughtful feedback on stories that are being edited by your colleagues. Represent is a professional publication and our editors adhere to high journalistic standards.
Co-teach Intensive Journalism Workshops & Other Group Work. Together with the other editor, each summer you'll teach an intensive six-week writing workshop for a group of 10 teen writers. You’ll teach them the basics of writing and reporting for Represent, supervise their work and edit their stories for publication. The associate editor also helps plan and facilitate editorial meetings and discussions throughout the year. From time to time we receive grants for special projects that the associate editor may be responsible for leading or co-leading.
Production. The editors work together on story selection and layout, headline writing, proofing galleys, selecting artwork, and other production-related tasks. (Desktop publishing staff assemble the pages.) This may require occasional late nights and weekend days.
Youth Development/Child Welfare Policy. While it is not required that the associate editor have a background in social work or child welfare policy, it’s essential that editors, over time, become familiar with child welfare policy and emotional and developmental issues related to trauma and recovery, which inform every issue of Represent.
Freelance Work. Because of the demanding learning curve, no freelance work is permitted during the editor’s first six months. In addition, our experience has been that editing a Youth Communication magazine does not allow for any but the most occasional freelance work (unless you do not sleep). If you expect to continue or initiate a freelance career this is not the job for you.
HOURS
•
PAY •
BENEFITS
Hours:
Monday-Friday, 10:00 - 6:30
Vacation/Benefits: Youth Communication currently offers 8 holidays, plus 15 vacation days the first year, though vacations must be scheduled around our publishing requirements. After three months you are eligible for a fully paid individual health care plan. After six months, we offer a modest pension plan and Transit Checks.
Salary: $37-$41K/year, commensurate with experience in teaching, editing, writing, social work, and supervision. (You don't need experience in all of these areas, but they will be factored into starting pay.)
Commitment: Because of the importance of stable relationships to teens in care, a good-faith two-year commitment is preferred.
About
Youth Communication
Youth Communication helps New York City teens develop the skills and self-awareness and acquire the information they need to make informed choices about their lives. We do that by:
-
training teens in journalism and related skills;
- producing
publications written and illustrated by young people;
- encouraging
teens and the adults who work with them to use our publications
to stimulate reading, writing, discussion, and reflection.
We currently publish three magazines: New Youth Connections, founded in 1980, is a general interest magazine with a circulation of 70,000 in New York City. Represent: The Voice of Youth in Care, founded in 1993, is a national magazine written by and for young people in foster care. Rise, founded last year, is a thrice-yearly magazine written by parents who are involved with the child welfare system. All of the magazines also have a presence on the web.
ABOUT
REPRESENT
Represent gives a voice to young people living in the system. It provides writers with a place to express their views and experiences, and gives readers the chance to see their lives reflected back to them in a real and thoughtful way. In addition, many adults (social workers, group home staff, advocates, and agency administrators) read the magazine to understand what foster youth are thinking and experiencing. The magazine is written by a core writing staff of about 15 youngsters in our Manhattan office, but accepts submissions from throughout the country. About half of the circulation is outside of New York.
OUR
ADULT STAFF
Our full-time adult staff includes a publisher/executive director, two editors for each of our two magazines, an editorial director, an administrative director, an IT/web director, a marketing director, and several part-time staff, including an illustration instructor.
CONTACTING
US
Reply via regular mail to: Represent, 224 W. 29th St., 2nd fl. NYC 10001.
(No calls or e-mail, please) |
