St. Louis Biz Journal seeks an economic development reporter

The St. Louis Business Journal seeks a reporter for an economic development beat focused on workforce and money in a metropolitan area of nearly 3 million people.

This beat will touch every industry, but with particular emphasis on banking, workforce training issues/initiatives, and industries with critical workforce needs such as health care, retail, restaurants and manufacturing. It will also explore issues at the core of St. Louis’ biggest challenges, including equitable distribution of capital and jobs, attracting and retaining talent and population growth.

This is the essence of top-level reporting. It requires building — and working — strong source networks, to uncover deals and trends before anyone else, and to grasp the broad impact of new issues, new employers and new players.

We need someone who is driven to do the hard work of digging up scoops, and is intrigued by the challenge of putting together the pieces of news to present a larger picture of the forces shaping our community. A good Business Journal reporter is editor of his or her own beat coverage, and is easily able to assess what merits a story, an in-depth investigation or just a brief.

Candidates must be able to blend traditional journalism skills — source building, sharp news judgment, interviewing prowess and scoops-driven reporting – with digital and social media know-how. Reporters don’t just turn in copy; they must think more broadly about multimedia options, such as videos and slideshows.

Business Journal reporters are expected to provide forward-looking business intelligence to savvy readers, not just to inform them, but connect them with decision-makers and educate them on the strategies that work — or don’t. A focus on the people behind the deals, events and trends is essential.

Duties
Business Journal reporters are expected to contribute short-form and long-form stories for the website and weekly paper. Here, reporters must own their beat and dictate day-to-day coverage. To bring in source-driven scoops, reporters are expected to be vigilant networkers and relationship managers. Our best stories come from people, not press releases. Scoops matter — a lot — and on top of that, readers demand to not only know what is happening, but why and how. You break hard news that sometimes sources don’t want brought to light, but you never burn bridges.

Skills
• Proven excellence in reporting and writing
• Desire and ability to break news and to identify newsworthy events and sources
• Strong analytical and investigative-interviewing skills
• Ability to work both independently and collaboratively
• Ability to relate comfortably to a wide range of people, in person, on the phone and virtually
• A clear drive to develop sources and build audience
• Solid understanding of news writing, journalistic ethics and story structure
• Ability to leverage relationships with sources to deliver content that differentiates the organization from competitors
• Multimedia skills, including video, photos, broadcast, on-camera, helpful

Experience
• 2-3 years of journalism experience
• Track record of building, maintaining and engaging a high-level audience in person, in print and online
• Social media mavens held in high regard
• A knowledge of the St. Louis community is a plus

Education
Bachelor’s degree or equivalent work experience

To apply, email a resume, cover letter and links to clips that best show enterprise and scoops reporting to Editor Erik Siemers, esiemers@bizjournals.com