The Albuquerque Journal seeks a city reporter

The Albuquerque Journal, the largest newspaper in New Mexico, is seeking a reporter to cover city and county government.

We’re looking for an energetic, aggressive reporter who can mine meetings, legislation, records and sources for stories that show how our city and county are being run, and why it matters to our readers.

We’re looking for a digitally minded reporter, who can hold true to the mission of the beat — holding public agencies accountable — while being committed to finding ways to engage readers with that mission.

This beat is a gold mine for an enterprise-minded reporter, but also offers a steady stream of dailies, so we’re looking for someone fast enough to cover news when it breaks, but focused enough to stay on top of slower-developing stories.

We’re looking for someone with:

• At least 3 years of experience in journalism
• Experience covering local government, and the bread and butter of government beats: budgets, legislation and local elections
• An interest in reader engagement and a passion in finding ways to make journalism accessible to a broader and more diverse audience of readers — alternate story formats, interaction with readers, etc.
• Comfort and experience working with social media
• The skills to write clean and fast on deadline
• The skills to structure longer-form/enterprise stories
• A willingness to occasionally fill in on stories outside your beat

Preferred but not required:

• Spanish language skills

The beat entails:

• Coverage of Albuquerque’s city council, the mayor’s office and major city departments
• Coverage of Bernalillo County and the county commissioners
• Collaboration with other reporters across the newsroom on topics like statewide legislation, development and more.

Interested applicants should send a resume, cover letter and five published clips to Gabrielle Porter at gporter@abqjournal.com. Please put “city reporter” in the subject line.

For further details click here.