Global Voices Seeks a Passionate Editor to Lead Our Sub-Saharan Africa Coverage

People's March Anti-Xenophobia Jeppe street, Johannesburg, outside Little Ethiopia. April 23, 2015. Photo by Dyltong. (CC BY-SA 4.0)

Are you a multilingual writer/editor on Sub-Saharan-Africa who values justice, equality, friendship across borders, and can't seem to get enough of the Internet? Do you enjoy working from home? If you are, Global Voices is looking for you!

Global Voices’ Sub-Saharan Africa Editor leads daily news-gathering from the region, writing, coordinating and editing stories by our borderless community of volunteer contributors, and developing a robust set of online sources to stay on top of regional social, political and activism trends on the Internet.

Our newsroom is unique: it’s completely virtual, our writers are volunteers, our sources are multilingual and live on the Internet. Our news-gathering focuses on activism, rising Africa, migration, freedom of speech, online censorship, and stories that are underreported or misrepresented in mainstream media.

Because of the vastness and complexity of the continent, Global Voices’ Africa coverage falls under four editors. Our Middle East and North Africa editor covers the countries of North Africa; our Francophone editor covers countries where French is an official language and our Lusophone editor covers countries where Portuguese is an official language. The Sub-Saharan Africa editor is responsible for coverage of the countries that fall outside of those categories, though in many cases there will be overlap and exceptions to the rule. As a result, we expect that the Sub-Saharan Africa editor will work closely with the other editors.

The Sub-Saharan Africa editor will:

  • Lead and develop the team of volunteer contributors responsible for reporting on the countries under the editor’s remit
  • Work with the team on selecting, writing, fact-checking, and editing the most compelling and important stories from online sources in the region for a global audience
  • Keep on top of developing stories, buzz and trends across social media and citizen media the region
  • Develop a database of reliable and vetted online sources across their region.
  • Seek out and manage republication partnerships with like-minded organizations
  • Stay engaged with the Global Voices newsroom and larger community
  • Work in accordance with Global Voices community and editorial guidelines, mission and culture

Successful candidates for the position will:

  • Be multilingual, with fluency in English.
  • Have proven news-sourcing and news-writing ability
  • Be able to write sensitively and knowledgeably about local issues for a global audience
  • Have a sound grasp of issues relating to countries in Sub-Saharan Africa, and sound editorial judgment on regional issues
  • Have a sound understanding of mainstream media, local press and social media dynamics in their region, including a knowledge of the credible social media and citizen voices in the region
  • Understand digital rights, freedom of speech, and activism-related issues and dynamics in the region
  • Have skill and experience with team leadership, community management and teamwork
  • Be able to work with others in a loosely structured, virtual work environment
  • Have high computer literacy
  • Have a strong and reliable Internet connection
  • Be available 20 hours a week

To apply:

Submit a résumé and a cover letter that highlights your work and explains why you would be a great fit for Global Voices to us at jobs@globalvoices.org by March 22. Please include your name and ”Sub-Saharan Africa Editor” in the subject line.

Before applying, it would be useful to read 8 Solid Reasons to Work for Global Voices.

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