St. Louis daily seeks business of health care reporter

The St. Louis Post-Dispatch is seeking a talented and tenacious journalist to tackle the business of healthcare. This is an opportunity to cover one of the most significant industries in our region and one that is changing rapidly. It is also a demanding beat that requires top-notch journalistic and organizational skills.

First and foremost, we are looking for a watchdog journalist with investigative and explanatory abilities who has experience covering for-profit and nonprofit entities. We need a reporter who can understand complex issues and write fairly, clearly, accurately and authoritatively. The candidate must be able to juggle breaking news, blog posts and longer-term enterprise.

St. Louis is a major medical hub in the Midwest, with a range of national and regional hospital groups based here. The business health care reporter will cover a wide array of topics that extend beyond the core hospital industry, including private insurers, Medicare, Medicaid, and the uninsured. The reporter also will cover major health-related companies, such as Express Scripts and Centene. Further, St. Louis has two renowned medical schools, Washington University and St. Louis University, which makes St. Louis a center for cutting-edge medical research. The business health care reporter will follow the commercial development of new drugs, medical devices and the emergence of new medical companies.

We’re looking for a thoughtful, hard-working journalist to push this beat to a higher level. The right applicant looks for ways to integrate photos, graphics and multimedia opportunities into the coverage and is a leader in engaging audiences through social media. At least three years of business and/or health reporting experience is required, and more is preferred.

Please apply via the Lee Enterprises web site including a resume, a cover letter describing how you would approach the job as well as five samples of published work and/or accessible links or email directly to Adam Goodman, deputy managing editor, St. Louis Post-Dispatch, agoodman@post-dispatch.com.