Political Desk Editor, Political Unit

Ensures CNN's Political Unit covers the day's most important political news stories and manages resources to make that happen effectively. The political desk manages CNN's minute-by-minute political coverage and is a vital part of the network's newsgathering apparatus. This is a project-based position through 31 January 2029.

• Serves as a key point person for field teams, including correspondents and embedded producers, facilitating interaction with all of CNN's television and digital platforms.
• Tracks future events and plans coverage assignments, leveraging editorial judgment to right-size resource deployment to match CNN priorities.
• Coordinates logistics for all deployments, including field teams' travel to and between events, video transmission and equipment strategies, security considerations, and any pooling responsibilities.
• Manages the specific requirements of all television liveshots and digital videos, ensuring editorial content and production format conform to individual platform needs.
• Identifies opportunities for multi-modal and multi-platform content, proactively pitching ideas to relevant teams.
• Circulates editorial information to the network from field teams, monitors various live campaign events, and files editorial copy.
• Surveys social media and competitor outlets to identify developing political stories.
• Ensures all incoming signals are properly routed, recorded, and alerted to the network.
• Estimates newsgathering costs to track expenditures against budget.

• Minimum three to five years in news, with previous newsroom or assignment desk experience.
• Demonstrated news judgement with a strong interest in politics.
• Ability to multitask and make quick decisions under deadline, taking into account the network's current editorial priorities.
• Keen attention to detail and robust organisational skills to track many simultaneous events and assignments.
• Excellent interpersonal skills and the ability to build relationships across teams and stakeholders while keeping calm under pressure.
• Highly responsive and communicative, utilising varied collaboration tools.
• Strong writing skills.
• BA/BS in journalism, politics or a related field or equivalent in experience.

• Understanding of CNN's newsgathering process is an advantage.
• Conversancy with using a content management system is preferred.

• May require early morning or late night hours and the possibility of working weekends.

• Health insurance coverage
• Employee wellness program
• Life and disability insurance
• Retirement savings plan
• Paid holidays and sick time and vacation
• Other rewards may include annual bonuses, short- and long-term incentives, and program-specific awards.