Staff Writer

Date Posted	September 17, 2024
Industry	Newspapers, Digital Media
Specialty	Not Specified
Job Status	Full-time

Description:

Dallas Observer is looking for a versatile news reporter to tell important, hard-hitting, timely and engaging stories. You’ll join a small but scrappy newsroom where we value ambitious reporting, well-crafted prose, an engaging voice and savvy use of social media.

Key Responsibilities

• Your stories will range from breaking news and trending topics that need to be written quickly to enterprise, investigative or feature stories that could take a week or more to report. You’ll also produce helpful guides to local and regional events and issues.

• Work with the newsroom to tell these stories in a variety of formats, including traditional articles online and in our weekly print issue, videos, photo essays and through social media.

• Use social media to find trending topics to cover, discover sources and promote your work.

• Attend public meetings, town halls, political rallies and other events outside the office to find sources, stories and people affected by the decisions made by elected officials and government agencies. The position sometimes requires evening and weekend work.

• Collaborate with other parts of the newsroom, our social media and product teams, and occasionally with reporters and editors in our newsrooms in Denver, Phoenix and Miami.

• Build broad and diverse relationships so that sources, story ideas, research and reporting reflect the diverse communities of the Dallas metro area.

• Be committed to accuracy and meeting deadlines.

• Participate in our annual Best of Dallas issue and other projects during the year.

Who You Are

• A journalist with a track record of crafting breaking stories on deadline with crisp writing and the ability to tell stories about people impacted by what you’re covering.

• Demonstrable writing skills with the ability to report complex issues with simplified, accessible language.

• Experience in reporting across a variety of topics, such as politics, public health, criminal justice, cannabis, government, labor and the environment.

• Strong interpersonal and communication skills, both written and verbal.

• A highly-organized, resourceful and proactive self-starter.

• Experience with open records requests.

Benefits

• Compensation range of $50,000-$52,000.

• 401(k) with company match.

• Medical, dental, vision and life insurance.

• 10 paid holidays, 14 days of paid time off, 5 paid sick days per year.

• Hybrid work policy based in our Dallas office.

Dallas Observer believes our journalism will best serve our communities with culturally diverse staff and freelancers who offer a range of voices. We are committed to creating and sustaining an environment of inclusion, diversity, empowerment and equality. We are at our best when all our team members are respected and included regardless of race, age, ethnicity, religion, gender identity, disability, sexual orientation and national origin. Women, veterans, people with disabilities, people of color and gender-nonconforming candidates are highly encouraged to apply.

Think you’ve got what it takes? Email a cover letter, resume and links for up to three stories to dal-staff-writer@voicemediagroup.com.