Bellingham Herald seeks a business reporter

The Bellingham Herald in Whatcom County, Wash., is looking for a smart, energetic journalist to discover and cover news across our mountainous, coastal community just south of British Columbia, Canada.

The Retail, Real Estate & Business Reporter will be expected to move fast when news breaks while producing larger stories that make a difference in the lives of our readers by holding officials accountable and unearthing the impact of their actions. This position will be responsible for collecting accurate, pertinent information by interview, observation, research and/or investigation about newsworthy events in the community. Develop detailed plans for columns and present to editors for consideration. Once approved, creatively and persuasively write columns that will be of interest to readers in print and online. This individual will be required to conceive and independently produce headlines for stories on deadline.

This beat is all about job news that will affect readers’ lives: Who’s hiring, who’s laying off, who’s investing in Whatcom. Explores trends and needs in our workforce and business landscape, including the underemployed. This position places a heavy focus on major employers, including agriculture, real estate, construction, industry, marine, higher education, and speaks to the people who work in those industries, are retired from those industries, hope to advance themselves in those industries and their educational opportunities, as well as the many businesses that support those industries.

About 30 percent of this job includes the Restaurants and Retail beat that quickly and aggressively alerts consumers to the openings, closings and changes to popular retail businesses, restaurant and services that attract an extraordinary amount of readership.

ESSENTIAL FUNCTIONS:

• Keen understanding of what’s important to local readers, developed through reporting on and familiarity with the region; through the extensive use of reader analytics such as social media referrals and time spent on a story; and through constant awareness of what people are sharing and talking about on social media.
• Strong writing and reporting skills and excellent news judgment.
• Commitment to accurate, ethical journalism.
• Tell stories using a variety of tools and platforms, including video.
• Learn new skills and technologies, including content management systems; social media platforms; video editing software; Omniture, CrowdTangle and other analytics tools; and any emerging storytelling tools and platforms.
• 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.
• Work comfortably in a job that will be fast-paced, data-driven, shaped constantly by feedback and experimentation and always evolving.

QUALIFICATIONS:

• College degree required.
• Reporters with a year or more of successful news experience will be most comfortable in this role.
• Strong writing and reporting skills and excellent news judgment.
• Demonstrated commitment to fairness and accuracy, in fact and in tone, and a strong grounding in journalism ethics.
• Must have demonstrated the desire and skills to build audience loyalty, engagement and growth around compelling public service journalism.
• Ability to build sources and ferret out facts, but also a talent for framing, writing, shooting, producing and promoting a story via search and social media to ensure that it reaches and resonates with our readers.
• Demonstrated commitment to change — to constantly adapting to the ever-evolving ways in which readers seek out and interact with journalism. And it will require enthusiastic participation in ongoing conversations about what’s working and what’s not — and an equally enthusiastic commitment to adapting accordingly.
• Unwavering commitment to accurate, ethical journalism.
• Demonstrated ability to use social media platforms such as Facebook and Twitter to reach audiences.
• Fluency in the science of readership and engagement, including an understanding of how to use analytics such as page views, time on site, referral sources and “shares and likes” to help determine which stories resonate with which audiences.
• 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.
• Demonstrated ability to work comfortably in a job that will be fast-paced, data-driven, shaped constantly by feedback and experimentation and always evolving.
• Must have reliable transportation.  Must have valid driver’s license and vehicle insurance required (at least minimum insurance required for the state in which the employee works).

To apply, go here.