Overview
The updates writer will report to the updates editor and help keep our guides as current as possible. As a member of the updates team, you’ll be a generalist who will update several categories of existing Wirecutter and Sweethome coverage—including cameras, computers, headphones, kitchen appliances, and housewares—and will help develop a cadence to keep the new categories we expand into current.
We need someone with sharp editorial skills and a lot of personal initiative who can work in a team setting. We like people who are excited about gear and gadgets but can also think critically about what makes a product great for the average reader. This position’s tasks will consist of a mix of research, smart communication with editorial teams, and writing on deadline. It will have opportunities for future specialization within our editorial structure. This is a full-time position, working out of our space in either New York or Los Angeles, or remotely from your home.
Responsibilities:
- Scan daily news coverage for news that affects our pieces, and communicate quick responses with our social team
- Rewrite sections of our in-depth pieces to keep them current
- Systematically check published pieces for dated information, and flag for correction
- Work with editorial teams to offer initial thoughts on what we’re looking forward to testing
- Collaborate with New York Times colleagues when news coverage overlaps with our expertise
Qualifications:
- Professional experience in blogging about personal technology desired; other journalistic experience or training appreciated
- Familiarity with current major tech-journalism and/or home-goods outlets and coverage
- Familiarity with product research and testing methods
- Experience working with remote teams and collaborative software
- Ability to work under deadline on multiple projects
- Ability to plan ahead for the news cycles of various products
Culture and benefits at The Wirecutter and The New York Times Company:
- We are committed to career development, supported by a formal mentoring program as well as tuition reimbursement. We have frequent panel discussions and talks by industry leaders (Sheryl Sandberg, Melinda Gates, and Ta-Nehisi Coates are a few recent examples).
- We believe diversity fuels innovation and creativity, and we have a variety of employee groups dedicated to fostering a diverse and inclusive workplace.
- We offer a generous parental-leave policy, which we recently expanded in response to employee feedback. Birth mothers receive 16 weeks fully paid; adoptive parents and birth fathers receive 10 weeks, also fully paid.
- Similarly, we offer competitive health and dental insurance, as well as 401(k) matching.
About The Wirecutter
The Wirecutter, and its associated sites, are about helping people find the best gear to buy using dozens of hours of research of all available sources and our own testing.
What’s different in how we do things is our directness in recommending people exactly what we would buy ourselves or recommend to our loved ones--we don’t ask people who are looking for our advice to click through multiple pages of reviews or meaningless industry news to exploit them for advertising inventory. We just give them our recommendation in a single page, and the evidence of why that is and why they should believe us, and let them them get on with their lives. It's that simple.
You may be aware that we run our company in service of our readers. Less known is our commitment to the people with which we work. We ask everyone who works here to be effective, to be efficient, and to move the needle every day.
In exchange, we offer you the ability to work from wherever on your own hours for competitive pay at a reasonable pace. We love working with people who can get it done in a world-class way and can communicate well with a team, and who know how to enjoy a balanced life outside of work.
Salary and perks: Although we are a small, bootstrapped company, we pride ourselves in offering competitive compensation including, but not limited to, healthcare coverage, PTO, and a flexible work schedule. We want to make sure every employee is happy and has the tools, resources, and knowledge to grow with the company.