Newspaper Designer

A quick note: This is a newspaper design job, not a graphic design position. It entails laying out stories and content generated by our local reporters on deadlines not building ads or other graphic design work. If your background is in editorial design, read on!

Do you love to design editorial content that is fun, imaginative and full of personality? That's our goal at the Observer Media Group: To deliver unique, hyperlocal content in a way that's relevant, informative and entertaining for our readers. We are constantly striving to surprise and delight readers with fresh stories and ideas, and we are seeking a designer who can use the foundation of our grid-based design to create packages that our audience can't wait to read.

A few years ago, we redesigned all of our papers with a Mondrian-inspired look that allows us to showcase stories and pictures in a grid to create movement and well-proportioned white space on every page..

Now we are looking for a talented, enthusiastic part-time page designer to join our editorial department to help us execute it in our newspapers each week. The right candidate sees design as a journalist, not just as an artist. They must have a passion for telling stories in a way that marries visual elements with text to create a total package that reflects the intent and tone of the story being told. We are not a design house — we want to bust out of templates, not adhere to them.

The ideal candidate should have a strong understanding of the print and newspaper industry and be knowledgeable in Adobe Creative Suite. Must be a self-starter who can work independently, but also enjoys being part of an energetic team and collaborating with reporters. The candidate should also have strong organizational skills, be able to work quickly and accurately under daily deadline pressure and be able to juggle multiple projects at once, all while injecting creativity into their designs.

This is a part-time position of up to 24 hours a week, with deadlines Monday through Wednesday and some occasional work required over the weekend to get ahead of those deadlines. Pay range is $20-$30 per hour, depending on experience and portfolio work.