The USA Today Network-Pacific Group is searching for an experienced, digital-savvy senior reporter to cover business and agriculture and take on investigative projects in Salinas, California.
This staff position will be located in Salinas and have the flexibility of working in a modern virtual office environment with both a place to plug in and collaborate and the freedom to work from home or anywhere in the community. The selected candidate produces smart, context-filled stories and other content on tight deadlines while developing high-impact journalism on longer project schedules. She or he understands the difference in writing for various platforms. This is not a job for someone who needs to be spoon-fed, but for a reporter who can’t figure out how to get to all of the great ideas on the list.
Key duties:
- Writes quickly, clearly and accurately.
- Identifies top news stories of the day, based on analytics and audience potential.
- Cultivates a beat, knowing the ins/outs of the beat and its key players. Has a genuine interest in people and ability to build trust.
- Equally adept at writing breaking news stories, enterprise and trending stories and traditional long-form features.
- Writes and/or produces multimedia content that appeals to key audience targets and maximizes user experience on digital and social platforms.
- Works closely with graphic, photo and video teams to optimize and produce content.
- Is comfortable hosting videos, Facebook Live appearances, and podcasts.
- Engages with readers through various social media platforms.
- Demonstrates strong news judgment informed by real-world experience.
- Writes quick-hit enterprise and trend stories off the news.
The ideal candidate:
- Is passionate and enthusiastic about news and content that will work well with audiences on social platforms.
- Bilingual (Spanish/English) preferred but not required.
- Is comfortable using social media such as Twitter, Facebook, Instagram and Snapchat to enhance reporting and promote stories.
- Understands reporting ethics and sourcing.
- Minimum of 2 to 5 years experience as a journalist (newspaper, digital news org, or the equivalent).
- Excels in a fast-paced news environment and understands the digital first mission.
- Works weekends and nights as needed.
- Collaborates well with others and can work with a team on the biggest stories.
- Must be willing to travel on short notice to cover breaking news events.
When applying, please include a variety of clips – no more than six – showing beat reporting and enterprise on different digital platforms.
To apply, go here.
