Editor’s Note: We’re no longer accepting applications for this position.
We’re seeking a smart and speedy staff writer for daily news coverage and longer-burning enterprise projects, to join our national desk and report directly to the national editor. The ideal candidate is comfortable producing scoops and second-day analysis for the site, while simultaneously working on longer-term reported features. The writer will cover a beat within one of our core areas of coverage—environmental, educational, economic, and social justice—so special knowledge of one subject and working relationships with potential sources within it are plusses.
The staff writer should have experience doing reporting—working the phones, following leads and tips, covering events on the ground, cultivating new sources, etc.—and be comfortable with adding research-backed insight and analysis to aggregated pieces. The writer should also know how to publish smaller, iterative scoops on the way to completing a bigger and more ambitious reporting project.
This full-time position with benefits will be based out of one of our editorial offices—in Santa Barbara, California, or Washington, D.C. We will not consider candidates looking to work remotely.
Primary Responsibilities
- With the news editor, pitch and provide daily coverage within a beat.
- With the national editor, conceive of, report, and write, enterprise stories within that beat.
- Work with the audience team to find networks/people/organizations to distribute your stories to in order to find them a larger audience.
- Work with the audience team to add data elements on same-day turnarounds to stories that can benefit from them.
Requirements
- Proven effectiveness at reporting and writing on a specific beat.
- Excellent interviewing skills.
- Can collaborate effectively (with co-reporters, editors, an audience team, etc.).
- Passion for reporting stories in the public interest.
To Apply
Send a resume, three clips on a single beat, and a cover letter—including a two- or three-sentence proposal on a presumptive core area of coverage—to national editor Ben Rowen (browen@psmag.com). All application materials should be submitted electronically. We regret that we cannot respond to all applicants. Absolutely no phone calls, please.
