Assistant Editor, Creator Spotlight

We are on a journey to help the next million creators, publishers, and companies scale and monetize their audiences. beehiiv is already home to tens of thousands of the most popular newsletters in the world, and we’re only 34 months old! The company quickly achieved $1M ARR in January 2023 and over $7M just a year later in January 2024 📈. 

The Assistant Editor will work closely with the Lead Editor of Creator Spotlight, beehiiv’s owned media property. For the past year, Creator Spotlight has been a weekly podcast and newsletter series; you will play a defining role in increasing the quality and depth of our content, including by contributing research and original writing, while we expand the footprint.

Our vision for Creator Spotlight is to build a lighthouse for the creator economy; the leading source for strategic writing and industry analysis, serving creators of all skill levels, as well as media companies, founders, and investors operating in the space. The newsletter is currently read by an audience of over 330,000. You will play a key role in doubling that audience this year and expanding our content offerings to better serve them.

The right person for this role is, first and foremost, a rigorous researcher and a talented writer. They have a discerning eye for quality and a deep interest in the production, distribution, and consumption of online content — this is what we research and cover. Your background may be in journalism, academia, internet content creation, or elsewhere, as long as these traits describe you. Length of experience matters less than depth of ability.

Qualifications:

• Writing talent. The core of this project is a long-form newsletter series with over 300,000 subscribers. You will contribute to it as an editor and sometimes a writer; strong writing skills are crucial.
• Writing samples. You will show your writing talent by submitting three pre-existing works. These can be any mix of: blog posts, essays, original reporting, video scripts, or excellent social media posts.
• Excellent research skills. You should know how to find information, whether online or otherwise. You should be able to identify who you need to speak with for a quote or story.
• Fact-checking ability. You should have a skeptic’s eye for fact-based statements and know how to check against them.
• High screen time. You’ll be researching and writing about the creator economy and the people working within it; you should be fluent in the language and culture of the internet.
• Camera-ready interview skills. We produce a weekly, interview-based video podcast. You may occasionally be asked to appear on it, either as host or co-host.
• Collaborative attitude. We believe the best work comes out of riffing and iteration with collaborators — primarily including, for this role, your Lead Editor, designer, and podcast producer. You should know when to push a collaborator and when to cede to their push.
• References. We’ll ask for two references: one from somebody who has managed or taught you and one from somebody you have worked alongside as a collaborator.
• Excellent communication skills. As this is a remote position, clarity, confidence, and transparency of communication are paramount, not only with colleagues but especially when sourcing quotes from external sources and conducting full-length interviews.
• 1–4 years of experience in writing or research-focused roles. Experience is less important than ability than your skill level in any of the other qualification areas listed here. Journalists, freelance writers, content creators, academics, and beyond are all encouraged to apply.
• Tools. We primarily use beehiiv and Google Suite. You should be comfortable operating in the latter. Bonus tooling ability would include graphic design tools like Adobe Suite and Figma, a digital audio workstation (DAW), and marketing tools like Google Analytics. 
• Bonus: Understanding of multi-channel (i.e., social media) content creation principles. You do not need to be an expert in all of LinkedIn, Twitter, Instagram, and other social platforms. You should understand how to produce original content and repurpose long-form content for these channels, and be comfortable doing so with minimal oversight.

Ideal Characteristics:

• A strong sense of taste. This is an editorial role; you should know what you like, what you don’t, and why — you should be able to argue why a thing (be it a potential interviewee, a story, a YouTube thumbnail, or a sentence) is strong or weak.
• Ability to ideate, iterate, and execute independently. You should feel comfortable, for example, coming up with a good social post based on our content, putting it together, and publishing it with minimal input.
• Motivated by deadlines. We currently publish one newsletter at the same time every week, soon to be two every week. You must be able to deliver high-quality work on a constantly weekly deadline cycle.
• Extremely online. Our work is about the people making and distributing content on the internet, their audiences, and the tech platforms where this all takes place. You should be knowledgeable about internet culture as a participant and have critical opinions on digital life.
• Strong time management ability. Due to the remote, deadlines-based nature of this role, where you’ll always be working on multiple projects in any given week, you must have a disciplined ability to prioritize your days and weeks.

What you’ll be responsible for:

Note: We expect applicants for this role will each have a unique mix of skills. The final hire’s exact mix of responsibilities may vary based on their specific skillset; your application should reflect your best skills, and we do not expect you to be a master of each responsibility listed here.

• Research. One of your chief responsibilities will be researching both the guests who appear on the podcast and the original essays and stories we publish in the newsletter, at the Lead Editor’s direction. You need to know how to find and vet high-quality information. 
• Pitch stories and interview guests for our newsletter and interview series, respectively. Understand what makes an excellent Creator Spotlight story, based on internal guidelines, and contribute to the editorial calendar. We will have a weekly editorial meeting. 
• Write and report original stories. We will publish weekly stories in the newsletter, written by a mix of freelance contributors, our Lead Editor, and you. You must be able to write compelling, original work. You will write one original reported piece per month and a weekly newsletter distilling our podcast episodes.
• Copywriting. Beside editorial writing, you need to be able to contribute to more outcomes-focused assets like YouTube titles, social media posts, and advertising copy (both sell-side and buy-side).
• Copyediting. You and the Lead Editor will edit each other’s writing and writing submitted by freelance contributors. You should have a good grasp of form and style.
• Co-host and host our video podcast (occasionally). We have a video podcast hosted by our Lead Editor. You should be comfortable filling in or co-hosting as needed — up to once-a-month cohosted episodes and rare full-on hosting duties.
• Create briefs for design partners. You do not need tool-based design skills, but you should be able to ideate visuals to complement our writing and communicate your ideas in written briefs for our visual designer and podcast producer.

Why beehiiv?

We’re remote. We believe that your best work is done where you feel safe, comfortable, and supported.

Empathy, not ego. Empathy opens the door to problem solving. Our team is uniquely talented and we can solve any problem when we lead with empathy.

Bias towards action. Most decisions can be changed or altered, but progress cannot be created without action. It is almost always better to deliver something today over something that may be better tomorrow.

Complete transparency. You will have full access to business metrics about the company.

Owner-attitude. Ownership creates a sense of pride and accountability. It empowers someone to stand up for what is right, with a long-term outlook.

We’ll take care of you:

• Competitive salary
• Stock Options
• Health, Dental, and Vision Insurance
• 401(k) employer match
• Unlimited PTO (mandatory 10 days per year minimum)
• Annual IRL Retreats 
• Unlimited book budget
• Wellness Day each month (every third Friday)

About beehiiv:

We’re empowering creators to create, monetize, and grow by building the most powerful and robust newsletter platform, built by newsletter people. And we’re only just getting started 🚀

beehiiv is committed to a diverse and inclusive workplace. beehiiv is an equal opportunity employer and does not discriminate on the basis of race, national origin, gender, gender identity, sexual orientation, protected veteran status, disability, age, or other legally protected status.

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