Education Reporter
The Belleville News-Democrat, a McClatchy news organization located in southwest Illinois near St. Louis, is seeking an enterprising, reader-focused education reporter who will break news and provide deep coverage of local issues that connect with parents, educators and other taxpayers in our region. Accountability reporting is a key part of this beat.
We’re looking for a reporter with the ability to build a diverse network of sources and generate high-impact coverage with input from people in communities across our region and other stakeholders in our K-12 education system.
This reporter must be able to use social media, SEO and storytelling tools and techniques to generate additional story ideas and ensure that our education coverage reaches a wide audience.
Journalism is a team sport in our newsroom. The ability to collaborate and communicate well with colleagues on a daily basis is essential.
ESSENTIAL FUNCTIONS:
- Cover education news, mostly focusing on K-12 but also higher ed and broad education topics as well.
- Develop daily, mid- and long-term enterprise stories and cover breaking education news. Consistently deliver accountability coverage, which is at the core of our beats.
- Build reader-focused beat coverage using all available resources, including engaging with residents and other stakeholders in education, social media and sources.
- Focus on diversity and fairness in sourcing, story ideas, interviews.
- Routinely use social media to disseminate news and information and cultivate audience on Twitter or other accounts.
- Be comprehensive, contextual and complete when reporting.
- Demonstrate interest and continuous learning about audience building tactics like SEO, social media, headline writing and other skills.
- Demonstrate interest in growing other digital skills and trying new tools, including data visualizations and interactives.
- Think visually when covering a story of any type, including partnering with our staff photojournalist and making your own stills and videos as needed.
- Must be a team player, able to collaborate across departments and roles.
- Work weekends and nights as needed, including as part of a weekend rotation team.
Qualifications:
- College degree.
- At least one year of full-time reporting experience.
- Must have reliable transportation and valid driver’s license
- Strong and reporting writing skills, excellent news judgment and a demonstrated ability to “see the story” that is going to matter to readers.
- Commitment to ethics and diversity.
- Ability to prioritize and to work under and meet short- and long-deadlines in a fast-paced, data-driven work environment
- Willingness to work weekends, nights and other times, as needed.