Portland Biz Journal seeks footwear and apparel reporter

The Portland Business Journal is seeking a reporter to cover the city’s dynamic footwear and apparel sector, a significant contributor to the regional economy.

Oregon is home to Nike, Columbia Sportswear, Adidas North America, Keen, a significant Under Armor outpost and dozens of smaller makers, manufacturers, suppliers, investors and educators that make up the footwear and apparel ecosystem. In addition to covering footwear and apparel manufacturing, this reporter will also write about manufacturing across an array of industries including tools and metals, technology, food and cannabis.

The ideal candidate will blend traditional journalism skills — source building, sharp news judgment, interviewing prowess and scoop-driven reporting – with online and social media know-how. Reporters in our newsroom don’t just deliver transactional news. They break hard news that sometimes sources don’t want brought to light, but they don’t burn bridges. Enterprise reporting matters. Tenacity is a must.

Duties
• Report and write short-form and long-form stories for the website and weekly print edition.
• Own the beat, dictating day-to-day coverage and thriving on digging out source-driven exclusives.
• Relentlessly develop sources and manage relationships with high-level executives and other community leaders.
• Scoop competitors on every story of any significance, not only telling them what happened, but why and how.

Skills
• Ability to report and write stories under daily deadline pressure
• Ability to report and write long-form, enterprise stories
• Ability to break news and not only tell readers what happened, but why and what’s next
• Ability to relentlessly develop sources and manage relationships with high-level executives and other community leaders
• Ability to use data to drive reporting and uncover news
• Ability to use public documents to drive reporting and uncover news
• Ability to use social media to inform reporting, find sources and drive conversations
• Strong analytical and investigative skills
• Competitive, collaborative, curious

Experience
• Three years of newsroom experience preferred.
• Track record in the news business of building, maintaining and engaging an audience in print and online

Education
• Bachelor’s degree or equivalent work experience

To apply email a cover letter, resume and clips that best show enterprising and scoops reporting to Editor Suzanne Stevens, sstevens@bizjournals.com, and Managing Editor Andy Giegerich, agiegerich@bizjournals.com.