Philadelphia Inquirer seeks a consumer reporter

The Philadelphia Inquirer’s business news team is seeking an experienced reporter to cover the dynamic area of consumer news. This diverse beat includes human stories of people caught by online scammers and crooked car dealers.

You’ll report on Comcast, which has film projects with Stephen Spielberg, theme parks in China, a media network in Europe, and a big lobbying operation in Washington DC that supports its grip on cable in the Philly region.

The beat also includes the pizazz of innovative startups that affect consumers, like delivery service Gopuff, the future of Wawa and firms building everything from robots to way stations for the Metaverse. The goal is to produce a steady stream of enterprise stories as well as breaking news and scoops.

What You’ll Do

Report on breaking news requiring your expertise and sourcing, collaborating with other reporters across the newsroom.
Identify the consumer issues Philadelphians are talking about across social media platforms and bring those conversations to our readers.
Aggregate consumer news of interest to our audiences with an eye to moving stories forward
Seek out the best ways to use different story forms and approaches — explainers, visual stories, digital storytelling, long-form narratives and service journalism — to help our audiences better understand and engage with consumer topics.
Use social media both as a reporting tool and as a venue for promoting work

Who We’re Looking For

An experienced journalist who pays keen attention to the city’s rich diversity of race, economic circumstances, age, sexual orientation, geography and more.
A reporter who can translate complex projects and trends for a general audience, and do it creatively.
A reporter who doesn’t just think of a story in terms of word count but how that story can best be told
A wordsmith with fine attention to detail and excellent written and oral communication skills
Ability to use data and find trends that readers enjoy and learn from.
Enthusiastic on-the-ground reporting and willingness to pitch in to help out colleagues on and off your beat.
Ability to meet deadlines and adapt in a daily, unpredictable news environment.

* We know not everyone reading this will fit exactly what we’ve described. We encourage everyone to apply who shares our passion for indispensable journalism and our drive to create a sustainable business model to support it. As an equal opportunity employer, The Inquirer is committed to fostering a diverse and inclusive culture, and we especially encourage members of underrepresented communities to submit an application, including women, people of color, LGBTQ people, and people with special needs*

To apply, go here.

Chris Roush

Chris Roush was the dean of the School of Communications at Quinnipiac University in Hamden, Connecticut. He was previously Walter E. Hussman Sr. Distinguished Professor in business journalism at UNC-Chapel Hill. He is a former business journalist for Bloomberg News, Businessweek, The Atlanta Journal-Constitution, The Tampa Tribune and the Sarasota Herald-Tribune. He is the author of the leading business reporting textbook "Show me the Money: Writing Business and Economics Stories for Mass Communication" and "Thinking Things Over," a biography of former Wall Street Journal editor Vermont Royster.