As a salaried employee, hours will vary, but must be able to work an average of 20 hours a week. The opinion editor will write and gather material for the opinion and editorial pages of the Emerald, and will be specifically expected to:
- Run the twice-weekly meetings of the editorial board
- Write the unsigned staff editorial, representing the views of the Emerald editorial board two times per week on average
- Coordinate a staff of columnists, editing their work for inaccuracies, wordiness, poor organization, libel, bad grammar or other writing errors
- Assist columnists in writing and in improving their work
- Finish all writing on deadline and ensure that columnists do as well. All editorials, columns and guest submissions are due to the Managing editor at 3 p.m. one day before they are to be published
- Ensure that columnists blog at least once a week
- Coordinate staff illustrators and schedule illustrations to coincide with columns or editorials as appropriate
- Verify and type in all letters and unsolicited commentaries, correcting minor grammatical and style errors but leaving the meaning intact
- Follow Emerald rules for such submissions (word limits, libel restrictions, etc.)
- Make sure all references to previous issues are accompanied by an accurate date for the issue (example: “Story headline,” ODE, May 15)
- Keep an accurate record of all submissions
- Prepare a daily budget for editorial pages before budget meetings
- Keep regular office hours
- Attend required staff meetings, and schedule weekly meetings with columnists
- Attend week ahead meetings once a week, editorial board meetings twice a week and budget meetings at 3:30 p.m. Monday through Thursday
- Monitor the news daily to keep abreast of all issues that need to be covered, and see that no pertinent news is missed
- Set individual goals each term to improve journalistic skills, and help others set goals each term to improve their journalistic skills
- Contribute to supplements as needed
- Complete other duties as assigned
Direct supervisor: Managing editor