Video Editor

The Barbed Wire

Austin, Texas

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Date Posted	October 05, 2026
Industry	Digital Media
Specialty	Local News
Required Education	High School Diploma
Job Status	Freelance
Salary	$40/hour

Description:

About the job

You are a smart and capable video editor for social media video who understands the importance of landing a hook, pacing, and storytelling on video platforms. You will be cutting episodes of the Barbed Wire News Brief and the Barbed Wire Dispatch, vertical short form bilingual coverage of Texas news, politics, and culture. In addition, you will work with the editorial team to develop longer-form 16:9 pieces. Two field reporters and our news director file footage; you turn it into consistent, fast, platform-ready video in English and Spanish.

What you'll deliver each week

About 12 cuts: 6 original pieces, 60–80 seconds each, each in both an English and a Spanish version. The share of new editing in the Spanish version depends on the bilingual format we lock in by Oct 16.
Turnaround within 24 hours of script sign-off, and same day on Oct 19 and Nov 3–4.
Every cut built to house style: enhanced audio, burned-in captions, sound effects, push and flip transitions, our hook card, lower-third and caption card, and end card.
Exports for YouTube, Instagram, TikTok, Facebook and Bluesky, typically under 90 seconds.
Building a searchable b-roll library, with video and stills tagged by district, county and subject.

What we're looking for

Strong Premiere Pro skills: Essential Graphics/.mogrt, Enhance Speech, auto-transcription and captions
Fluent reading and listening in English and Spanish; you'll catch transcription errors in both
Experience cutting vertical video for TikTok and Reels
Comfortable taking notes from a news director and cutting around inaccurate lines instead of asking for reshoots
Same independence rules as reporters: no work for or donations to candidates, parties or committees in these races this cycle

Skills

Optimize video content for major social media platforms, including Instagram, TikTok, Facebook, X, YouTube, and emerging platforms
Create graphics, short-form videos, captions, thumbnails, and social-first storytelling to The Barbed Wire standards
Collaborate closely with reporters to maximize the reach of editorial content
Stay current on digital and video trends, platform updates and journalistic storytelling formats

Ramp plan

The house templates exist to make each cut faster every week. Track time per piece from day one.

Week	Target time per episode	Focus
1–2 · Oct 7–18	~2 hrs	Learn templates; build project structure and b-roll bins; test all three bilingual formats
3–4 · Oct 19–Nov 1	~1.5 hrs	Lock workflow; save presets and Spanish caption styles
5 · Nov 2–8	~1 hrs	Election Day speed; pre-build result templates by district before Nov 3
6–8 · Nov 9–30	~1 hr, matching the current News Brief pace	Culture pieces drawing on the b-roll library

At these targets, the editor's week likely falls from about 30+ hours to about 15–20.

Compensation

$40/hour.

How to apply

Send a resume and links to your work to hello@thebarbedwire.com.

Timeline

Apply ASAP. Interviews run Oct 7–9. Program runs October through November with opportunity beyond.

When applying, mention you saw this opening listed at JournalismJobs.com.