Fort Worth Star-Telegram seeks a growth reporter

Fort Worth is the fastest growing city in America, in a metropolitan region that’s already home to 8 million. Growth is the story in North Texas – from the construction cranes towering over our urban skylines to the sprawling new subdivisions that are taking over miles of rural ranchland.

We are looking for a reporter who is eager to tell the stories of North Texas’ phenomenal growth at a pivotal time for our booming economy. For all of our successes as a modern, thriving and diverse Metroplex, we face many challenges that are critical to our future. This region struggles to build roads, freeways and public transit fast enough. Home construction can’t keep up with demand. Fort Worth’s cost of living remains less expensive than other major cities, yet many families feel squeezed by soaring property tax bills and rising rents. Our region’s vital resources, like water, energy and green spaces, are at risk without smart planning. And with so many new people moving to North Texas, how do we preserve the rich cultural heritage that makes Fort Worth unique?

While some of the core coverage areas on this beat involve business, government and politics, this beat is really about the quality of life of people who live here. We want to confront these growing pains in a way that seeks answers and solutions for our readers. Success on this beat will mean spending time in communities that are dealing with growth and change; using social media effectively for sourcing, ideas and trends; and building an effective network of contacts that includes community leaders, business professionals and industry watchers.

So what could you expect doing this job? We’d look for a good mix of quick-hit stories, trend pieces and enterprise. We’d want you to break stories on your beat (this is a highly competitive market) and think creatively about storytelling. We’d want you to enjoy working collaboratively with a team of other reporters, editors and visual journalists. We’d love you to be curious, the type of reporter who sees a new construction site and wonders what’s going up, or drives by construction barrels and wonders why this new freeway is taking so long to finish. We need a reporter who is persistent with a sense of urgency.

Fort Worth is an amazing city, where you can watch cattle drives with the tourists at the historic Stockyards or enjoy world-class theater, art museums and dining. We may be one of the largest cities in the nation, but you’ll find the people here are remarkably friendly and you can still get a beer for about $3. And then there’s the barbecue. Don’t even get us started on the barbecue.

In considering you for this position, we’ll look for a demonstrated commitment to fairness and accuracy, in fact and in tone, and a strong grounding in journalism ethics. And like all journalists at the Star-Telegram, the growth reporter must have demonstrated the desire and skills to build audience loyalty, engagement and growth around compelling public service and accountability journalism.

For us, the reader comes first, last and always. Serving readers in a crowded media marketplace means becoming the best and most relevant source of journalism that matters to them — and ensuring that our work reaches them, wherever they are. This will require a 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; through knowledge about how and what people search for online; through a constant awareness of what people are sharing and talking about on social media.

It will require not just the 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. It will require a 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.

What you’ll bring:

• 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 such as Parse.ly and Google Trends and development of story ideas derived from data.
• Understanding of SEO 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. 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 X (formerly Twitter).
• Ability to develop breadth and variety of sources.
• Ability to understand audience lenses and correctly identify the audience for selected stories.
• Ability to work on both daily and enterprise stories concurrently, delivering both with consistency.
• Ability to meet deadlines.
• Ability to capture video and edit it (using phone).
• Ability to work collaboratively on projects ranging from podcasts to video to enterprise stories. We will work comfortably in a job that will be fast-paced, data-driven, shaped constantly by feedback and experimentation and always evolving
• Bachelor’s degree in journalism or related field preferred
• Fluency in Spanish and English preferred
• Two years of experience in a professional digital-first news organization preferred

To apply, go here.