Cedar Rapids Gazette seeks a business reporter

The Gazette, based in Cedar Rapids, Iowa, is seeking a business reporter to join our news reporting team. This reporter won’t be focused on earnings reports, but will instead focus on context-based reporting about business and economic trends in Iowa and within the region.

This reporter is able to quickly turn daily stories, but enjoys taking a few steps back and look at the bigger picture. You should be comfortable writing analysis stories and profiles. There are a wide variety of sub beats ranging from retail and agribusiness to commercial and residential real estate and more.

Our ideal candidate will be a self-starter and idea generator who doesn’t sit back waiting for an editor to make assignments. Your ideas will sew multiple ideas together into deeper contextual stories about how changing demographics impact workforce and the kind of businesses we have, interconnections of the local economy and more.

Our ideal candidate will be able to juggle multiple assignments simultaneously. You’ll be eager to get past what and spend more time looking at why. You should be comfortable using a variety of story formats and know that work can appear in the daily newspaper, a variety of magazines and in a variety of digital formats.

Our ideal reporter writes clearly, accurately and can handle deadline reporting. You know your way around an earnings reports and business filings but don’t simply regurgitate them as stories. You understand reporting ethics and sourcing. The reporter will be excited to work with data and will have basic analysis skills. You should also enjoy working closely with other reporters, photographers and editors.

You should have strong news judgment, enjoy engaging with audience online and in social media. Our next reporter will be comfortable hosting and participating with in-person events such as panel discussions, Facebook Live and podcasts.

With your combination of journalistic chops and office humor, you’ve left a clear impression with those you’ve worked with before that they’d be glad to cross paths with you again someday. If these qualities describe you, we’d like to talk to you about joining our team at Iowa’s second largest newspaper.

Our organization:

Our news team reaches audiences across a variety of print and digital platforms and through a variety of in-person events. Our company has a strong tradition of being independent and is owned by a trust for the benefit of its employees. The Gazette is delivered to 16 Eastern Iowa counties each morning. The majority of our news team is focused on enterprise reporting, and we have a strong spirit of collaboration with other news outlets. While we’re focused in Cedar Rapids — Iowa’s second-largest city – we have bureaus in Des Moines and Iowa City. The region is rich with things to do outside of work hours.

Qualifications & Requirements:

A Bachelor’s degree in journalism, English, communications or a related field and and at least two years of prior reporting are required. We offer competitive salary and benefits, 100% ESOP,  including health care, dental and vision coverage, flex spending accounts, 401K, paid time off for vacation.  A pre-employment drug screen and satisfactory driving record are required.

To apply, go here.