The Walter Cronkite School of Journalism and Mass Communication at Arizona State University seeks an experienced and innovative professional to teach and lead a team of advanced undergraduate and graduate students in reporting, writing, editing and publishing digital content for Cronkite News—the school’s student-staffed, faculty-led news outlet—and in related Cronkite courses.
This role combines editorial leadership, mentorship and teaching, ensuring students develop professional-level skills in digital journalism while maintaining the highest standards of accuracy, fairness and thoroughness. Success in this role is measured by the success of students and their ability to synthesize skills and knowledge from earlier courses inside a working newsroom environment.
The successful candidate will be a journalist of the highest caliber with strong digital news experience, a creative thinker who is comfortable in a highly energized news environment, and a student-first instructor inspired by the future of news. The candidate demonstrates a commitment to accuracy, fairness and collaboration; possesses the skills to inspire, support and instruct a team of student journalists; and delivers clear direction and feedback.
As a member of the faculty, the professor will have teaching and service responsibilities with the Cronkite School. In this role, there are no research or creative activity responsibilities. Teaching assignments are made on a semester-to-semester basis. Assignments may include a combination of editing within the Cronkite News capstone course and other media courses.
This is a full-time, benefits-eligible, 9-month (academic year) appointment on ASU’s Downtown Phoenix campus. It is not a tenure-track appointment. The professor will hold the rank of assistant, associate or full clinical professor, or assistant, associate or full teaching professor.
Cronkite News is a multi-platform daily news operation that produces daily and enterprise news coverage of critical issues on Arizona PBS and digital, audio and social platforms. The newsroom serves more than 1.8 million households with its nightly broadcast and Arizona and national audiences with its digital content, regularly published by more than 100 media outlets. Cronkite News also serves as an immersive and innovative learning laboratory for students, who create content under the guidance of award-winning, experienced professionals. Cronkite News is anchored inside a state-of-the-art newsroom located on ASU’s Downtown Phoenix campus in the nation’s 11th-largest media market, with additional bureaus in Washington, D.C., and Los Angeles.
The Cronkite School is widely recognized as the nation’s premier mass communication school, ranked No. 1 by the Broadcast Education Association for three consecutive years. Rooted in the time-honored values that characterize its namesake—accuracy, responsibility, integrity—the school fosters excellence and ethics among students as they master the professional skills required to succeed in the digital media world of today and tomorrow.
Based on ASU’s Downtown Phoenix campus in the heart of the nation’s fifth-largest city, the School is known for its hands-on, “teaching hospital” approach to learning led by a faculty composed of Pulitzer Prize-winning professional journalists, strategic communications leaders and world-class media scholars. More than 2,500 undergraduate, master’s and doctoral students regularly lead the country in national competitions as they prepare for careers in journalism, PR, marketing, strategic media and related communication fields.
Arizona State University, ranked No. 1 “Most Innovative School” in the nation by U.S. News & World Report for 11 years in succession, has forged the model for a New American University. Repeatedly ranked No. 1, ASU has topped more than 30 lists in the last three years: No. 1 in the U.S. for global impact (Times Higher Education) and No. 1 in the U.S. for sustainable practices (Association for the Advancement of Sustainability in Higher Education).
ASU is a comprehensive public research institution, measured not by whom it excludes, but by whom it includes and how they succeed; advancing research and discovery of public value; and assuming fundamental responsibility for the economic, social, cultural and overall health of the communities it serves. ASU operates on the principles that learning is a personal and original journey for each student; that they thrive on experience and that the process of discovery cannot be bound by traditional academic disciplines. Through innovation and a commitment to accessibility, ASU has drawn pioneering researchers to its faculty even as it expands opportunities for qualified students, attracting some of the highest-quality students from all 50 states and more than 130 nations.
Applicants will be asked to create or use an existing Interfolio Dossier to submit the following:
Successful candidates will demonstrate throughout their materials how their teaching, research, and service will contribute to the fulfillment of the ASU Charter.
The applicant’s name should appear in each uploaded file name. Cover letters may be addressed to the Search Committee Chair, Assistant Dean Melanie Asp Alvarez. Questions about the position should be directed to the search committee chair at melanie.alvarez@asu.edu
Application deadline is October 17, 2026. Applications will continue to be accepted on a rolling basis for a reserve pool. Applications in the reserve pool may then be reviewed in the order in which they were received until the position is filled.
A background check is required for employment. All qualified applicants will receive consideration for employment without regard to race, color, religion, sex, national origin, disability, protected veteran status, or any other basis protected by law.
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