“Planet Money” is hiring a fact checker

Planet Money and The Indicator are two of the biggest daily podcasts around, reaching a combined audience of close to five million people each week online and on-air. We’re a tight-knit group of journalists that move fast and pride ourselves on storytelling standards as high as our journalism standards. We put out a lot of journalism every week. Five short episodes of the Indicator, two longer episodes of Planet Money and sometimes TikToks, events and occasionally a comic book. We need someone up for fact checking all of that – with the help of the rest of the team. Someone who can help improve our team practices around research and fact gathering.

We are looking for a curious, self-motivated, healthy skeptic who loves getting into the weeds and is driven to get the facts 100% right and use language correctly, but without making a paragraph confusing or bland. In addition, we hope to find someone who, like us, is never bored with finance and economics, but is definitely bored by the generic coverage of it.

Our coverage agenda is driven by the curiosity and lived experience of our staff, and as such, we benefit from a diverse staff as we try to represent America and the world more fully. Candidates from historical underrepresented groups and backgrounds are especially encouraged to apply.

The Ideal Candidate will …

• Be an analytical thinker
• Be able to hit a tight daily deadline
• Be persistent and resourceful in tracking down hard to find information
• Be relentless and meticulous with a strong eye for detail
• Be able to collaborate – with kindness – with busy colleagues in a deadline-driven environment
• Be aware of assumptions and be comfortable challenging them
• Be able to stand by their convictions but also compromise when appropriate
• Be able to work both independently and collaboratively
• Be familiar with audio, print and social media information resources
• Be an experienced fact checker who is used to working on deadline at a high level of journalistic rigor, preferably for business, economics or finance publications or better yet, podcasts.

RESPONSIBILITIES

• Fact check episodes of The Indicator and Planet Money on deadline and help the team improve journalistic and research practices
• Read The Indicator and Planet Money scripts, roughly 6-7 per week, to confirm information and identify any inaccuracies.
• Critically evaluate reporter/host sources and, when necessary, follow up with sources via email or voice or other methods to confirm or clarify information
• If needed, find additional sources to verify questionable source information
• Review supporting editorial content for accuracy including web copy, social media and occasionally other Planet Money projects, including our TikTok videos, along with help from colleagues.
• Be proactive in improving both teams’ research capabilities and journalistic fact checking processes
• Keep up on the latest methods of research and information verification, in collaboration with NPR’s research staff.
• Along with editors, help set standards and practices for Planet Money and Indicator research and reporting practices.
• Help with research, finding sources, data and other materials for episodes as needed.

To apply, go here.