Gannett seeks a local data automation reporter

The USA TODAY NETWORK is seeking a data journalist to work at the intersection of news automation and artificial intelligence tools to create data-driven content.

The automations you work with will generate real-time stories accessible to all newsrooms in the USA TODAY Network. You will pitch, report, and build data-driven stories using the news automation tool library.

We are looking for journalists with comfort in finding the story in data especially across key news areas, including climate/weather, real estate, sports and/or economics.

This role will help determine the future vision of our news automation product and develop new capabilities while helping craft standards for a new way of scaling news.

You’ll bring a passion for understanding our audience and identifying their concerns and questions – then using that to inform your work.

You’ll be part of Gannett’s Center for Community Journalism, the leadership and editing team that oversees newsrooms in 150 of our small and mid-sized local newsrooms coast-to-coast.

You will work closely with forward-thinking journalists passionate about using new technology to fuel quality journalism in service to local news. Even if you only have a few of these skills, please apply.

Responsibilities:

• Be responsible for obtaining, cleaning and automating data in preparation for publication.
• Write templates that will generate stories using Natural Language Generation.
• Develop strong working relationships with your counterparts in News, Product and other parts of the organization.
• Assist fellow reporters with data brainstorming, acquisition, cleaning, integrity-checking and analysis.
• Bulletproof and spot-check data work done by other journalists on the team and in the newsroom.

Requirements:

• Bachelor’s or master’s in communications, journalism or an equivalent combination of education and experience. A degree is a quantitative field is a plus.
• An aptitude for problem solving.
• An understanding of statistics.
• Solid news judgment and knowledge of journalism ethics and media law.
• Ability to write quickly and cleanly.
• SEO knowledge.
• Good interpersonal communication skills – you will be working closely with journalists and product teams.
• The ability to find a story in data.

We’d love to see:

• Fluency in Python.
• Experience with coding for data journalism.
• Experience working on data projects in a newsroom or experience doing statistical or data-scientific analysis, either in academia or in another research setting.
• A solid understanding of the tools of data analysis, such as database management systems (SQL Server or PostgreSQL), statistics software (R), Microsoft Excel, etc.

We are eager to learn more about you and how you fit this role. When you apply, don’t limit your upload to a resume; show us what you’ve done. To do so, put together a single document file that includes the following, in this order:

• Your resume – one to two pages.
• A cover letter that outlines how you would approach the job.
• Links to 3-6 online samples of your work. Show us what you’ve produced or had a hand in that best reflects what you can do in your desired role.

Salary: The hourly rate for this role will range between $21.63 and $50.87

For further information click here.