Checkpoint Editor

Role purpose

The Checkpoint Editor leads Media Trust’s specialist in-depth, premium, and accountability journalism unit. The role is responsible for shaping and delivering original, high-impact journalism across investigations, documentaries, features, fact-checking, data journalism, and visual investigations.

Checkpoint is designed to give Media Trust editorial distinction by producing rigorous “slow news”, exclusive reporting, and credible verification-driven journalism that strengthens the organization’s reputation as a trusted source of authoritative public-interest journalism. The desk works collaboratively across the newsroom and produces content for digital, print, television, radio, and social platforms.

Core responsibilities

Editorial leadership and commissioning

Lead the editorial direction, priorities, and daily operation of the Checkpoint desk.

Generate and commission high-value enterprise stories, investigations, explanatory features, and documentary projects.

Identify public-interest themes, accountability opportunities, emerging misinformation trends, and underreported issues with potential for high editorial impact.

Build a distinctive pipeline of short-, medium-, and long-term projects that strengthen Media Trust’s premium editorial offer.

Present story proposals, editorial priorities, and project plans to the News Hub for approval, commissioning, and resource allocation.

Investigations and enterprise journalism

Oversee the conception, planning, execution, and publication of investigations and special projects.

Ensure investigations are evidence-based, properly sourced, legally and editorially sound, and developed with strong storytelling ambition.

Coordinate collaborative investigations with journalists and editors from other intake desks, bureaux, and output teams.

Ensure investigations are designed as multiplatform story packages, including supporting documents, interviews, graphics, timelines, explainers, and follow-up angles.

Maintain a rolling slate of exclusives capable of generating audience impact, trust, and premium editorial value.

Documentary and long-form storytelling

Lead the development of long-form current affairs documentaries and multimedia specials.

Work closely with documentary producers, video teams, and Audio Visual colleagues from story conception through production and publication.

Ensure stories are developed with clear narrative structure, editorial purpose, visual ambition, and cross-platform adaptability.

Identify investigations and features suitable for documentary treatment for Trust TV, digital long-form, and special editorial packages.

Features and deep explanatory journalism

Commission and edit in-depth features that provide context, explanation, insight, and audience understanding beyond daily breaking coverage.

Convert complex developments into accessible, high-value explanatory journalism.

Ensure major stories move beyond first publication into second-wave and third-wave coverage, including backgrounders, timelines, profiles, analysis, and deeper reporting.

Fact-checking and verification

Lead Media Trust’s fact-checking operation and verification priorities.

Identify misleading narratives, false claims, manipulated content, and disinformation trends circulating in public discourse and digital spaces.

Commission and supervise timely fact-check output, especially around elections, governance, public policy, and high-impact national debates.

Ensure fact-checking is rigorous, transparent, fair, and methodologically consistent.

Build editorial relationships with reputable independent fact-checking organizations where beneficial.

Develop special verification projects during major national editorial moments.

Data journalism and evidence-led reporting

Lead the use of public datasets, official records, research databases, and institutional information to originate stories.

Work with data journalists to identify patterns, trends, anomalies, and underreported public-interest stories.

Ensure data reporting is accurate, interpretable, and editorially meaningful.

Work closely with Audio Visual and digital teams to translate complex datasets into compelling charts, maps, graphics, interactives, and visual explainers.

Promote data-led storytelling across other desks and support newsroom-wide editorial collaboration.

Workflow coordination and newsroom integration

Operate Checkpoint fully within the intake-output newsroom model.

Participate in editorial planning meetings, daily coordination, and News Hub workflow.

Coordinate with:

News Hub on priorities, approvals, timing, and editorial treatment

Audio Visual on graphics, documentary treatment, visual investigations, and interactive storytelling

Radar & Echo on social distribution, audience engagement, and follow-up

Output desks to ensure stories are prepared appropriately for each platform

Ensure all Checkpoint projects are properly entered into the Global Planner with clear deadlines, ownership, and production expectations.

People management

Lead, mentor and develop Checkpoint staff including:

investigative journalists

documentary producers

fact-checkers

data journalists

visual investigations specialists

Allocate assignments, define editorial expectations and monitor quality and deadlines.

Build a culture of collaboration, editorial rigour, creativity, curiosity and accountability.

Encourage cross-desk knowledge-sharing, specialist skills development and innovation.

Editorial standards and accountability

Maintain the highest editorial standards of accuracy, fairness, verification and public-interest relevance.

Ensure sensitive reporting follows appropriate legal, ethical and risk-management procedures.

Maintain strong editorial documentation, evidence trails and source discipline.

Ensure published work strengthens Media Trust’s reputation for trusted, independent journalism.

Key outputs

The Checkpoint Editor will be expected to deliver:

original investigations

documentary projects

long-form features

explanatory packages

fact-check reports

data-driven stories

visual investigations

multimedia special packages

follow-up accountability reporting

Candidate profile

Essential experience

Senior editorial leadership experience in investigations, public-interest reporting, long-form journalism or current affairs.

Strong editorial judgment and proven ability to originate, shape and deliver exclusive journalism.

Demonstrated experience in managing complex reporting projects from conception to publication.

Strong understanding of verification, editorial risk management and evidence-led reporting.

Experience working across digital, print and broadcast workflows.

Desirable

Experience in documentary commissioning or long-form video journalism.

Familiarity with data journalism, public datasets and visual storytelling.

Experience leading collaborative newsroom projects across multiple desks and formats.

Skills and attributes

Strong editorial judgment

Investigative mindset

Public-interest orientation

Excellent commissioning and story development skills

Strong planning and organisational discipline

Ability to manage complex multi-stage editorial projects

Collaborative leadership

Calm decision-making under pressure

Strong understanding of multiplatform storytelling

High standards of accuracy, fairness, and verification

Success indicators (first-year expectations)

Establish a functioning Checkpoint editorial pipeline.

Deliver regular exclusive and enterprise journalism.

Build visible fact-check and accountability output.

Produce recurring data-led explanatory journalism.

Launch at least one strong documentary or multimedia special strand.

Strengthen collaboration between Checkpoint, News Hub, Audio Visual and output desks.

Build a distinctive editorial identity for Checkpoint as a premium public-interest unit.

go to method of application »

How to apply

Use the link(s) below to apply on company website.

Auditor, Senior Officer

Checkpoint Editor

Public Life Editor, Senior Officer

Documentary Producer, Senior Officer

https://www.myjobmag.com/apply-now/1377804

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