We are not currently accepting applications for this position.
As our Local Reporting Network grows, we’re looking for an engagement reporting fellow to join our award-winning team. This is a yearlong paid position beginning in July, with benefits, and is based in our New York office.
We’ve learned a lot from working with our local partners to channel community engagement into powerful accountability journalism. In this fellowship, you’ll help shape crowdsourcing efforts for several investigations across the country. Like everyone on the engagement team, you’ll think about how to find and reach the people with important stories to tell, how to pull them into the process and how to maximize the resonance of the project after publication.
We’re looking for an organized, strategy-minded fellow who’s curious about what makes engagement work. You’ll spend your time thinking through questions like: What catches on in Florida that might not resonate in New York City? How do you reach people in rural West Virginia? What’s the best way to learn about the conditions inside of California jails versus correctional facilities around the country? Who’s actually responding to our tweets?
You’ll work closely with the local reporters and their news organizations, as well as the senior editors overseeing the project. Some of the partner newsrooms will be bigger than others; in some instances, you might be in more of an advising or consulting position.
Excited? Us too. You should apply if:
- You have journalism experience, either locally or nationally, especially doing stories that shed light on injustices. You don’t need fancy bylines, but you will be glad to have baseline reporting chops.
- You’re organized. You like to use data and analytics to make smarter decisions.
- You’re a thoughtful writer who can adjust your style to the occasion. You understand the difference between messaging the moderator of a Facebook group and emailing a PR person for comment.
- You’re creative and proactive.
- You believe in the power of inclusiveness. You think it’s important to collaborate with communities and your colleagues. You’re committed to being a respectful human being.
- You like the internet. You think it can be fun. This isn’t a traditional social media job, but social media is part of the job. You’re excited about possibilities online (Facebook groups, social media, web forms) and in real life (events and forums).
Above all, we’re looking for somebody who is excited about helping us expand this initiative and make hard-hitting, great investigative journalism resonate in local communities. This is a yearlong fellowship that’s probably best suited to someone with some industry experience, who’s also in the earlier stages of their journalism career. You won’t be managing anybody.
We know there may be great candidates reading this who may not fit into what we’ve described, or who have alternative skills — for example, rural community organizers or subreddit mods or town hall note takers — who could bring a lot to this position. There also may be candidates who psych themselves out of applying even if they would be great at this job. If any of that describes you, please don’t hesitate to apply and tell us about yourself. There’s space in the application to tell us everything you bring to the table, and we look forward to reading it.
What you should send us:
We cannot emphasize this enough: Great projects are the most important part of the application.
The application form will allow you to send us three projects from your portfolio, as well as give you the space to walk us through your own contributions to those clips. Take advantage of this to tell us everything you did, from behind-the-scenes wins you’re proud of to how you helped your colleagues. Let us know how your engagement and outreach work shaped the output.
Don’t be shy — tell us what succeeded (numbers and evidence of impact welcome) and how you’d do it differently next time.
Make sure to read the section above, titled “You should apply if,” because it’s also our evaluation criteria for the position. Use your projects and the rest of your application to show us that you’ve got the skills we’ve listed, or why the skills you have are the ones we actually need.
We are dedicated to improving our newsroom, in part by better reflecting the people we cover. We are committed to diversity and building an inclusive environment for people of all backgrounds and ages. We especially encourage members of underrepresented communities to apply, including women, people of color, LGBTQ people and people with disabilities. (Here is a breakdown of our staff.)
Got questions? Email [email protected].
No phone calls, please.
The deadline to apply for this position is Friday, June 29, at 5 p.m.
