Job Description
The Mary Sue: Assigning Editor
The Mary Sue is looking for an experienced and highly motivated Assigning Editor to help develop and shape our entertainment and internet culture coverage during an exciting period of growth.
At The Mary Sue, we have a strong editorial voice and a highly engaged audience. We’re looking for an editor who understands how modern audiences discover and engage with content daily. This role is ideal for someone who thrives in a fast-paced newsroom environment, loves spotting what’s about to take off, and is energized by performance and growth. Experience writing, curating, and planning content for various traffic referral sources, including Google Discover, social media, and syndication platforms, is highly desirable.
This position will begin as a short-term contract role, with the possibility to transition to a full-time position after 3–6 months (depending on contract length) for the right candidate.
The Mary Sue prides itself on its international teams filled with passionate, creative, and driven editors and writers. We love and live geek culture, movies, television, celebrities, emerging technologies, and all things weird and wonderful on the internet. We promote, celebrate, and champion diversity and inclusion in all areas.
What you’ll do
- Assign and edit daily internet culture, entertainment, TV, film, celebrity, and political stories
- Identify trending topics, social discourse, fandom conversations, and breaking moments worth covering
- Work closely with writers to develop pitches and work on angles, framing, and headlines
- Commission stories with a strong understanding of audience behavior and performance
- Track how stories perform in real time, and adjust coverage accordingly
- Oversee freelance output and experimentation (alongside senior editors)
- Collaborate with senior editors, including the Editor-in-Chief, on coverage strategy and editorial experiments
- Ensure all content meets The Mary Sue’s editorial standards while remaining competitive with major culture and entertainment publishers
- Help shape and evolve editorial products and formats through testing, iteration, and performance learnings that drive repeat engagement, loyalty, and long-term success
What we’re looking for
- 3+ years in a senior editorial or writing role within a busy digital newsroom or magazine environment
- A proven track record of growing traffic and audiences across various verticals, mediums, or platforms
- Strong knowledge of entertainment, internet culture, fandoms, and online communities
- Prior experience in assigning, editing, or writing content at a high volume with performance in mind
- Knowledge of what makes a story travel, spread, and resonate with audiences
- Experience working with traffic data and performance metrics
- Ability to make quick editorial decisions and give clear feedback
- Familiarity with WordPress, Slack, Google Analytics, and similar tools
- Familiarity and understanding of how to target a variety of traffic referral sources, including Google, Discover, Yahoo, MSN, and more
Experience working at or alongside large-scale digital publishers, magazines, or newsrooms (e.g., BuzzFeed, Jezebel, Mashable, Insider, Vox, The Daily Beast, LADbible Group, Reach PLC-style environments) is a strong plus.
What success looks like in this role
- Assigned stories consistently perform well and work towards growing audience reach and engagement
- Headlines are strong, compelling, and not clickbait
- Coverage decisions are informed by real-time performance and trends
- Writers are aligned with expectations and improving over time
- The Mary Sue holds its own against larger entertainment and internet culture sites, growing its loyal audience while maintaining its unique voice
Contract Details
- Initial contract role with the opportunity to move into a full-time position after 3–6 months
- Fully remote
- Best suited to applicants based in the United States or the United Kingdom, and able to work predominantly Eastern, Central, or Pacific Time 9-5
- Competitive contract rate, with full-time benefits available upon conversion
Why join The Mary Sue
- A chance to make a real editorial impact quickly
- Hands-on influence over coverage, commissioning, and experimentation
- A collaborative newsroom that values initiative, speed, and strong instincts
- The opportunity to help steer a well-known culture publication into a new era
At The Mary Sue, we value honesty, openness, innovation, and initiative. We’re looking for editors who want to build something unique and sustainable for a diverse audience that loves entertainment as much as we do.
