Kansas City Star seeks restaurant and retail reporter

The Kansas City Star, winner of nine Pulitzer Prizes, is seeking a creative, high-energy journalist to become our restaurant and retail reporter.

Kansas City loves to eat. It’s at the center of our “going out” plans, a huge part of our entertainment. And we have a remarkable award-winning restaurant scene that offers some of the best meals you can find anywhere. It’s not just barbecue – really.

This Kansas City-based reporter will be responsible for covering a wide variety of restaurant- and retail-related stories, including restaurant or retail openings and closings, local dining trends, news about major retail developments, and other topics of interest to our local readers.

The successful candidate will bring an audience-focused approach to reporting and a strong curiosity about what to eat, drink and do in Kansas City.

This reporter will be expected to research and write compelling news stories, features and columns that speak directly to our local readers’ interests. You will be expected to stay up-to-date on dining and retail trends, be connected with sources throughout the Kansas City metro, pitch story ideas to editors and write a weekly newsletter.

We are looking for an enthusiastic reporter who works collaboratively with editors, other reporters, visual journalists and our audience team to tell essential local stories across platforms that grow and engage our local audience and build long-term loyalty among our subscribers.

You’ll join a reporting team that is fun, creative and always looking for new ways to connect and inform with our diverse audience across platforms. The newsroom you’ll join is deeply committed to listening to, engaging with and meeting the needs of our neighbors across the Kansas City metro area.

Kansas City is a vibrant, large city with a high quality of life – replete with iconic professional sports teams and a world-class arts scene – and a low cost of living. It’s a fantastic place to put down roots, and this job offers the chance to contribute to its future.

In this role, you will need to:

• Focus on stories that build and engage local readership
• Write with power and verve
• Build a network of sources so you can be first and best with stories that inform, delight and engage readers looking for what to eat, drink and do in Kansas City
• Think about audience first and always, with a commitment to tactics that grow readership
• Master engaging multimedia storytelling
• Curate and write a weekly newsletter
• Demonstrate speed, competitiveness and SEO savvy Work well in a team environment, both virtually and in person.

The successful candidate should meet many of the following requirements:

• A deep knowledge of restaurants, food and retail industries
• Familiarity with data, public records and business reports
• College degree or equivalent work experience
• At least 1-3 years of reporting experience
• Excellent news judgment and a demonstrated ability to “see the story” that is going to matter to readers
• 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)
• Unwavering commitment to accurate, ethical journalism
• Ability to work collaboratively to aggressively tackle stories with urgency
• Comfort with a job that will be demanding, fast-paced and constantly evolving as our region grows

To apply, include a persuasive cover letter, your resume and four to six examples of your best work.

To apply, go here.