Indianapolis Biz Journal seeks a retail/restaurants reporter

Indianapolis Business Journal is looking for an aggressive reporter who can take on our best-read beat: retail and restaurants. We’re looking for a reporter who can write quick-hit but thorough breaking stories, develop strong sources to scoop our competition on the latest retail and restaurant news and write longer trend stories about the sector.

This reporter will also co-author our Real Estate Weekly newsletter and cover the media, which includes television and radio and produces top-read stories as well.

IBJ is an award-winning, locally owned news organization that focuses on coverage of and for the business community. We interpret business broadly, but retail and restaurant news is among the most important things we cover. The beat also is among the most competitive, with TV stations and the local daily paper scrambling to get restaurant and retail news first.

But while we want to beat the competition on breaking news, we want to do far more with these sectors. We want a reporter who can profile chefs, explain the supply chain issues that cause store shelves to be empty, follow the latest trends in payments technology and identify the next areas of Indianapolis that are ripe for retail development.

IBJ has a newsroom of 18 reporters, editors and artists who cover technology, real estate, banking, manufacturing, philanthropy, health care, government and politics.

We publish a weekly printed paper and produce significant daily coverage at IBJ.com that is distributed through more than a dozen email newsletters (two of them sent daily, plus a number of specialty weekly newsletters). Parent company IBJ Media—which is locally owned and managed—also publishes The Indiana Lawyer every other week.

Job requirements

• Experience with breaking news and enterprise.
• Ability to work independently and generate story ideas.
• Curiosity about retail and restaurants.
• Experience promoting stories and reporting with social media.
• Ability to shoot smart-phone images and video.
• Fast, thorough writing.

IBJ offers a chance to work in an affordable capital city with a metro area population of more than 2 million people but in a smaller newsroom with plenty of opportunity to make a big impact. In Indianapolis, you will find professional sports, world class museums and performance venues, and neighborhoods filled with great restaurants, bike trails and parks.

IBJ’s offices are located on the city’s historic Monument Circle—the literal and figurative heart of Indianapolis, just blocks from stadiums, the Statehouse, the Indianapolis City Market and much more. Our commutes are short, our public transportation is expanding and our city and suburbs are thriving.

If you’re a reporter who can uncover compelling stories about restaurants, retail and the media, send a resume, cover letter and examples of breaking news stories and enterprise to Editor Lesley Weidenbener at lweidenbener@ibj.com and Managing Editor Greg Weaver at gweaver@ibj.com.