Categories: Journo Jobs

Austin American-Statesman seeks tech reporter

The American-Statesman is looking for a technology reporter with the knowledge, enthusiasm and expertise to cover all that innovation – and to do it in a way that connects with the readers, especially through our digital platforms.

The Statesman’s technology reporter must be someone with excellent and proven journalism skills – and someone who will excel at delivering on our digital platforms. In many ways, this will be a write-first-for-web/mobile position, with a focus on building our digital audience through extensive blogging and social media work, along with regular video work – both shooting video and doing on-camera work.

The ideal candidate has expertise in – or a working knowledge of — a variety of high-tech fields, including semiconductors, PC development, app development, mobile, data center development, video gaming and biotech. Also important are sharp interviewing techniques, clean, clear and insightful writing and strong analytical reporting skills.

A knowledge of how to find, understand and report on a variety of securities filings is also important, but this position will focus less on the annual reports and profit margins of our big tech companies, and more on the innovations and tech advances that are happening in Austin and about the tech startup culture that is helping drive that.

The job includes responsibilities for the print product, as well, particularly for our Sunday business section, where longer-form enterprise work is highly valued.

The ideal candidate will also be able to communicate clearly with co-workers and managers, and be able to understand how their work – and their beat – fits into the bigger picture both of the Statesman’s business team and the newsroom as a whole.

Teamwork, adaptability and personal responsibility are core values on the Statesman’s business reporting team. We value reporters who are self-motivated, who seek out new challenges and who consistently hone their craft and learn new skills.

Research and write accurate, timely, balanced, comprehensive, fair and unbiased news, news feature and feature stories on a daily, deadline basis for the newspaper, its website and publishing partners such as CoxNet. Generate compelling, practical story ideas that lead to publication. Develop and maintain sources that provide current and highly reliable information for publication. Work cooperatively with photographers and graphic artists to produce the visuals that accompany stories. Works shifts that may include days, nights and weekends. Beat allows work primarily on self-directed assignments and schedule.

· Generate thoughtful, timely and practical story ideas that break news, identify trends, give context and insight to news events or issues, profile people and help readers cope with their day-to-day lives.

· Develop these ideas into stories that are accurate, compelling, well structured and delivered for publication by an agreed upon deadline.

· Take assignments from originating editors and follow them through to publication in the same manner described above. Published work must be competitive with all other print and electronic information sources in Central Texas, including other newspapers, television and radio stations and Internet sources.

· Whether measuring through individual stories or as a body of work, the reporter’s published product should be of value to readers, improve the quality of the newspaper and meet the company’s goal of being the premiere source of news and information in the region.

· In addition to regular reporting duties, an Enterprise Reporter II provides consistent daily coverage and quality enterprise for the front page or major section front. Consistently demonstrates an ability to handle complex sourcing, writing and story organization.

Education/Experience

Some college and at least five years daily experience. This may include experience gained through school publications and internships

Knowledge, Skills and Abilities

· Should understand the fundamentals and ethics of journalism have a good eye for news and feature stories, and have a demonstrated ability to report and write news and feature stories. Should have the ability to establish relationships and get along with sources, peers and supervisors.

· Should be curious, open to varying points of view, observant, persistent, quick, accurate and balanced. Should be able to think visually. Should be well read and have a social conscience.

· Must be able to gather and synthesize information to write accurate, timely, interesting, balanced and well structured stories on a daily, deadline basis.

· Must possess good writing, spelling, organizational and communication skills. Must be able to gather information using a wide range of techniques including face-to-face interviews, telephone conversations, e-mail messaging, the Internet research and standard hard-copy records searches.

· Must have the ability to establish relationships and get along with sources, peers and supervisors. Knowledge of Texas, Central Texas and Austin is an advantage.

Other

The reporter will be given work schedules in advance. However, news assignments could require weekday hours, night hours, weekend and holiday shifts. The reporter must be able to quickly get to various locations in Central Texas during the day and at night and must be available to travel, if required. Must have transportation and a valid driver’s license.

Cox Media Group is an Equal Opportunity Employer; Women/Minorities/Disabled/Veterans

Cox Media Group is an integrated broadcasting, publishing, direct marketing and digital media company that includes the national advertising rep firms of CoxReps. Additionally, CMG owns Cox Target Media, which operates Valpak, one of North America’s leading direct marketing companies, and Savings.com, a leading online source for savings.
The company’s operations currently include 14 broadcast television stations and one local cable channel, 57 radio stations, eight daily newspapers and more than a dozen non-daily publications, and more than 100 digital services.

CMG currently operates in more than 30 media markets and reaches approximately 52 million Americans weekly, including more than 32 million TV viewers, more than 4 million print and online newspaper readers, and 14 million radio listeners.

For more information about Cox Media Group, please check us out online at http://www.coxmediagroup.com

Chris Roush

Chris Roush was the dean of the School of Communications at Quinnipiac University in Hamden, Connecticut. He was previously Walter E. Hussman Sr. Distinguished Professor in business journalism at UNC-Chapel Hill. He is a former business journalist for Bloomberg News, Businessweek, The Atlanta Journal-Constitution, The Tampa Tribune and the Sarasota Herald-Tribune. He is the author of the leading business reporting textbook "Show me the Money: Writing Business and Economics Stories for Mass Communication" and "Thinking Things Over," a biography of former Wall Street Journal editor Vermont Royster.