Job Description

The editor is responsible for the design, content and production of the DIT student newspaper. The editor must strive to ensure high quality editorial and responsible journalistic standards. The editor must manage the editorial staff and be available to assist them to ensure a quality product as well as reporting to the society office and the editorial board. A professional journalist will mentor the editor in providing feedback and advice. The Editor for DIT’s independent student newspaper The Edition will work from the month of August to May.

Role of the Editor

To interview the positions for the editorial team with a respresentative from DIT Student Media and Arts Committee or the chairperson of the news society. The editor must choose the best candidates for the roles by interviewing candidates, candidates must also present documents showing relative experience and present a clear idea and approach for the section with an outline of objectives for the year. The roles for interview include:

  1. News Editor. This person is responsible for having regular contact with departments and organisations of DIT including those of academic affairs, the Students Union, the Clubs and Societies organisations, HR, Building maintenance in order to source relevant news stories for DIT students on a regular basis. They are responsible for the generation of the news list for the news section, each month they must send their list to the editor and monitor and supervise content writers with the stories, directing them to relevant sources in the college. They must set the word counts for their section and edit copy with sub-editors.
  1. Entertainments Editor. This person is responsible for the content of the entertainments and arts section of the paper. They must have relevant knowledge and expertise in recent listings of events in DIT as well as events taking place in areas where DIT colleges are based. They must contact cinemas, clubs, galleries, restaurants and music venues for regular content for the section.
  1. Features Editor: The candidate best suited for this role will be creative and have an ability to generate innovative ideas for the features section of the paper. This candidate must have relevant experience in writing creatively and a clear sense of what the DIT reader is interested in focusing on DIT issues as well as general ones whilst maintaining a balanced approach to filling the section with political, opinion, colourful and travel etc features.
  1. Fashion Editor: This is a role that requires a candidate who has an interest in fashion and who has a knowledge of new brands, fashion events and latest styles that are relevant to DIT students. They should collaborate with the photo society and photo students for creating interesting visual content for the section as well as communicating with retail stores in the vicinity of the DIT campus.
  1. Sports Editor: This person is responsible for the sourcing of stories relating to sporting events that take place in DIT as well as reviewing matches and tournaments of interest for the DIT reader.
  1. Online Contents manager: This person will assist the editor in putting content on the website. He/she will receive a record from the editor of everone who wrote each article and the photos that accompany articles to ensure that there are no errors. He/she will also communicate with section editors for ideas for regular online content.
  1. Photo Editor: This person takes responsibility for sourcing photos for the paper. They will have to communicate with section editors and members of the photo society.
  1. TV Editor: This is a position that has been introduced this year. This person will be in contact with the film society, the online contents manager, the editor and section editors with the aim of films interviews and reports on events in DIT.

Communication

The editor will communicate with society members, the editorial board and news committee, mentor and section editors on a regular basis.

  1. The Editor meets with section editors on a weekly basis. To discuss:
  • Content
  • News lists
  • To delegate distribution and editing tasks to section editors.
  1. The Editor will have contact with society members on a weekly basis through email and on a monthly basis through a meeting to discuss:

Weekly

  • Sending out news lists
  • Confirming the delegation of a story and offering advice and help when needed.

Monthly

  • New ideas
  • Review of previous issue
  1. The editor will be answerable to the Editorial Board consisting of professionals and student representatives who will give a review of each edition of the paper. The editor will meet with this board on a monthly basis.

The Editor will have monthly communication with the Editorial Board and the Chairperson of the news committee, this meeting will take place in order to:

  • Review of the issue by both the editorial board and the Chairperson, who will speak on behalf of the entire committee.
  • The Editor will give his/her monthly report of the targets he has met.

Payment

The Editor will be paid €700 for the production of one issue of the paper. This is broken down into four categories the edit and layout, training, distribution and maintaining an online presence. If the editor does not carry out these responsibilities he/she will not receive full payment.

  1. Layout and Editing

The Editor will be paid €400 for the layout and editing. This will include:

  • Gathering all articles.
  • Layout of the newspaper on Indesign.
  • Sub editing articles to ensure a high standard of journalistic writing in the paper. The editor must have read all articles that will be published in the paper.

He/she is responsible for ensuring that articles in the paper are of a high quality standard by editing and re-writing copy is necessary to improve readability of the content. He must also supervise others, including section editors and sub editors who carry out this work.

The Editor must ensure that there the paper has a layout that appeals to its readership and that is at a high standard of design so the paper can compete at national level at the SMEDIA awards.

  1. Training

The Editor will be paid €100 per month for providing two workshops with the aim of training the society members in relevant skills to increase the efficiency and standard of the paper. The breakdown of this is €50 per workshop.

The editor is responsible for providing training workshops twice a month on topics of relevant for society members. Workshops could include showing members the basics of using InDesign, using recording equipment, Photoshop, interview techniques and photojournalism etc

He/She will arrange and conduct weekly meetings with section editors to manage the team effectively and ensure that there is ongoing communication.

The editor must ensure that he receives all section news lists and is then responsible for sending out an overall list to society members and monitoring the stories taken by content writers.

They must book a facilitator and the room for the workshop.

  1. Online

The Editor will be paid €100 for ensuring that the website is regularly updated.

The editor is responsible for ensuring that The Edition has a strong online presence by managing the website content and putting it online. He/she should also supervise the online content manager.

  1. Distribution

The editor will be paid €50 for distributing the paper to all DIT sites including:

  • Aungier St
  • Kevin St
  • Rathmines
  • Bolton St
  • Temple Bar
  • Mountjoy St
  • Portland Row
  1. Content

The Editor must ensure that the content of the paper is of a high standard throughout the year. They are responsible for the content of the paper and must at all times strive for content that is of relevance to the students and staff at DIT. The editor must provide guidance for contributors if they have problems with a story and where necessary, the editor may have to take responsibility in covering stories that are simply too big for a student contributor who doesn’t have the experience that a journalism graduate would have.

Project

Key Performance Indicators

The editor will be able to access his/her performance with the following indicators throughout the year.

  • Amount of members who have signed up to the society.
  • Number of students interested in editorial positions.
  • Number of training sessions provided.
  • Visibility around campus.
  • Number of entries submitted to the SMEDIAs, the Editor must ensure that members are aware of the SMEDIA awards and promote the benefits of submitting.
  • Number of short listing at the SMEDIA awards.
  • Number of active members/editorial team.

The deadline for application is Wednesday 6th June at 6pm. Please send your CV and cover letter to