Business/economic development reporter Fort Worth is growing by 20,000 people a year and is home to major employers such as Lockheed Martin, Bell helicopter, American Airlines and a number of hospital systems. Yet the burden of property taxes falls disproportionately on residential property owners and our economy is heavily driven by lower-paying retail, entertainment and service industries. Some fear it’s only a matter of time until Fort Worth and Tarrant County are merely considered bedroom communities for Dallas.
Position is temporarily remote home-based
The business/economic development reporter tracks our major industries and our community’s efforts to bring more high-paying jobs and tax-paying industries to Fort Worth and Tarrant County. This includes news about new or potential economic development projects, our community’s strategies to attract and retain high-paying jobs, what businesses are growing, who is hiring or laying off, who is benefitting from the development and who is not, and issues regarding workforce
development/preparedness. The beat includes downtown development and redevelopment, as well.
The businesses/economic development reporter is a part of the Star-Telegram’s Crossroads Lab, a group of reporters funded through philanthropic partnerships to examine our community’s challenges and opportunities with a goal of raising awareness and engagement around matters key to the success of our community and the entirety of its diverse population, with an emphasis on solutions-based reporting.
This reporter will provide thoroughly reported enterprise stories regarding business and economic development issues while also tracking breaking news and day-to-day developments related to the beat.
The reporter’s work will help make the community aware of opportunities to engage, and the reporter will help arrange and participate in community engagement events such as listening tours, panel discussions and forums with stakeholders in our business community. These events could be virtual and/or in-person when it is safe.
Skills needed:
- Strong writing and reporting skills and excellent news judgment
- Unwavering commitment to accurate, ethical journalism
- Fluency in the science of readership and engagement, including an
understanding of metrics/analytics programs including Parse.ly and Crowdtangle and development of story ideas derived from data and trends in reader habits. - Understanding of SEO, headline writing and other optimization opportunities and a demonstrated ability to learn new skills in social and digital.
- Strong interpersonal skills, including empathy and the ability to take and give constructive criticism. The new workflows require constant conversations between reporters and editors and between reporters and their audience as a story evolves.
- Understanding of open records law and ability to file, manage and oversee requests pertinent to beat work.
- Ability to engage with readers and develop sources on social media platforms including but not limited to Facebook, Instagram and Twitter.
- Ability to develop breadth and variety of sources.
- Ability to understand audience lenses and correctly identify audiences for selected stories.
- Ability to work on both daily and enterprise stories concurrently, delivering both with consistency.
- Ability to meet deadlines.
- Ability to capture photos and record video and edit it (using phone).
- Ability to work collaboratively in a job that will be fast-paced, data-driven, shaped constantly by feedback and experimentation and always evolving
Education and experience:
- Bachelor’s degree in journalism or related field
- Five years of business reporting experience in a digital-first news environment and fluency in English and Spanish preferred
To apply, go here.
