Chicago Reader seeks a racial justice reporter

The racial justice reporter finds and tells stories about race and equity in Chicago, collaborating with other reporters where these issues inevitably overlap with health, education environment, art, and politics. The racial justice reporter will report to the news editor and will work under the leadership of the editor-in-chief. The racial justice reporter will work as part of an expanding cohort at the Reader — two reporters and one editor by end-of-year 2023 — and also partner with Reader/RICJ leadership in supporting the Racial Justice Writers Room, a training and collaboration fellowship built to bring more journalism talent into this work.

Responsibilities: Editorial

• Create stories and breaking news related to diversity, equity and inclusion
• Produce daily and long-form narrative features and short news stories
• Search documents and data to uncover ideas, experience with filing FOIA and other news-gathering techniques a plus
• Working on special projects in collaboration with other RICJ reporters
• Fact-check and understand the context
• Have a natural writing and voicing style
• Use community engagement best practices to tell stories with communities, not just about them
• Develop skills at live interviewing
• Commit to diversity in coverage and building sources across races, genders, and abilities
• Impeccable journalistic integrity and judgment
• Stays on top of technology, nonprofit news, and storytelling advances.

Requirements and skills:

• Minimum of 3 years of professional journalism experience or equivalent experience
• Ideal candidate will have reporting experience in a newsroom
• Excellent organizational skills
• Ability to manage and meet deadlines
• Outstanding communication skills
• Working knowledge of online platforms like WordPress and SEO concepts
• Attention to detail
• Google Suite products including Docs and Sheets, Airtable, Slack, Adobe
• General social media
• Bachelor’s degree in journalism or relevant field, or equivalent
• Ability to manage multiple projects concurrently
• Must maintain a strong interest in news, public affairs, and policy
• … and other duties may vary

Salary is $45,000 – $50,000, based on experience

For more details click here.