The mission of The New York Times is to seek the truth and help people understand the world. That means independent journalism is at the heart of all we do as a company. It’s why we have a world-renowned newsroom that sends journalists to report on the ground from nearly 160 countries. It’s why we focus deeply on how our readers will experience our journalism, from print to audio to a world-class digital and app destination. And it’s why our business strategy centers on making journalism so good that it’s worth paying for.
Climate change is reshaping insurance markets, agriculture, supply chains, labor productivity, real estate, facility planning and the flow of capital and trade globally. It is a central force reordering how industries make decisions and compelling societies to make difficult choices about how to spend scarce resources. It is pulsing through economies, but often goes unrecognized.
We’re creating a new beat to fix that.
This correspondent will reveal the economic implications of a warming planet. It’s one of the most significant coverage areas in the world today, touching on energy and trade, shifting global economic alliances and the complex calculations being made by societies that may determine prosperity or poverty for generations.
The mandate spans everything from why insurers are pulling out of entire states, to how ports are redesigning for rising seas, to how central banks are beginning to price climate risk into monetary policy and ways that a warming world is forcing governments to spend more.
This correspondent will also have the investigative skills to reveal which entities are profiting from a changing climate and how they use power and money to their advantage, influencing markets and government policies.
This is a rare opportunity to define a beat from scratch.
This is an in-office position and includes regular attendance in a NYT office four days each week. There may be some flexibility to work remotely per your departmental guidance.
Responsibilities:
- Report ahead of the curve and break news — Curiosity that leads you to identify which industries, regions, or asset classes are about to face a climate reckoning before it becomes obvious to the public or even to the industries themselves. We want stories nobody else has found
- Write standout features that use narratives and data to make abstract risk tangible: the Iowa farmer recalibrating for a new growing season, the Miami condo board fighting over special assessments, the highway engineer redesigning for freeze-thaw cycles that no longer freeze.
- Illuminate how climate risk is moving through the economy: insurance repricing, credit downgrades, corporate disclosures, agricultural futures, real estate valuations and municipal bond markets and write about it in an engaging, accessible way
- Translate science into economic consequences — fluently connecting climate models, weather data, and physical risk research to markets, prices, and policy with graceful language that leads readers to say ”Now I understand!”
- Build a network of sources across insurance, agriculture, utilities, construction, banking, and academia
- Collaborate with Business, Real Estate, National, Weather and other desks to produce ambitious work
- Think visually, and work in different formats, including video and data visualization
- Explain complexity clearly for readers who may know nothing about, for example, reinsurance markets
- Tell the big picture, be able to stand back, connect events and see the larger narrative in the United States and abroad
- Dig, be able to dive below the surface, follow the money and illuminate hidden deals and decisions
Basic Qualifications
- 5+ years of reporting experience, ideally spanning business/economics journalism with some exposure to science, policy, or climate reporting
- Fluency in economics and markets — you should be as comfortable reading a Fed statement as a peer-reviewed climate study
- A track record of enterprise reporting and investigative work
- A fluid, clear and vivid writing style; the ability to not just report but to tell a story. Good writing is a must.
- Demonstrated range — the ability to turn a daily news story and a 4,000-word feature with equal skill
- Experience with public records requests, financial disclosures, or regulatory filings as reporting tools
- Comfort with data: the ability to interrogate a dataset and recognize the story in the numbers
- Demonstrate support and understanding of our value of journalistic independence and a strong commitment to our mission to seek the truth and help people understand the world
Preferred Skills
- Prior beat experience in insurance, agriculture, real estate, infrastructure, or energy markets
- Familiarity with climate science literature and modeling (IPCC reports, NOAA/NASA data, catastrophe modeling)
- A network of sources in insurance, banking, agribusiness, or public works
Why This Role
You’ll be building something new: a beat that springs from one of the biggest stories of our time — a changing climate — with the resources, editing, and platform of The New York Times behind you. Your reporting will help readers, policymakers, and business leaders understand risks and opportunities most of the world hasn’t yet digested.
*To be considered for this role, please submit your resume and cover letter, including links to 5-7 clips that demonstrate your range.
This position is represented by the NewsGuild of NY.
To apply, go here.
