The News Leader in Staunton, Va., is looking for a Community Conversations and Engagement editor.

The ideal candidate will:

• Manage our branded social media accounts and coach other staffers on effective use of social media.
• Adopt and expand our network of community columnists to increasingly focus our opinions space on local issues and voices. Coordinate letter writers and columnists, including syndicated.
• Recruit and coach one-time columnists who can add perspectives to our magazine-style enterprise reports.
• Write a weekly column bringing to the fore community people with compelling personal stories.
• Experiment with and evaluate new social media tools for their usefulness and potential, and lead staff adoption of those deemed most promising.
• Help brainstorm further shifts in how we engage our audiences across print and digital platforms.
• Help represent the newspaper in the community. Provide recon for other journalists 
• Depending on qualifications and background, a role on the editorial board is also possible.

Many of the tools are digital, but what's really important is that we want to remain the place where the community turns for intelligent conversation and ideas. We've been that for a century, and we're not stopping now.

Our local news model — in touch with our readership and reflecting its priorities — is what many larger newspapers are trying to reinvent. We don't have to win our local news franchise back from others, even though this is a competitive market with another daily newspaper. Readers look to us for their news in print and online. We've come through the last couple of years with something not all newsrooms have: Strong achievements and momentum. It's a great position to be in. 

This is the perfect role for someone who understands and believes in community journalism and is fluent in social media. And someone who wants to keep innovating for tomorrow. It's also perfect with someone who wants to be part of the company that is creating a bright digital future and already employs the nation's largest roster of journalists — Gannett.

The market itself is beautiful. Look east and you see the Blue Ridge. Look west and you see the Alleghenies. Between, it's rolling hills, quaint cities and great places to live. Camping, fishing and hunting abound. Fully a third of our county is national forest or national park. We're minutes away from major universities. Our historic downtown is doing well, despite the big box stores in the region. We're within two hours of major cities and three hours out of D.C.

Interested? Excited? Curious? Send your resume, a summary of your thoughts on and experience in community interaction, and work samples to David Fritz at dfritz@newsleader.com. We are a Gannett newspaper and we value diversity.