
Reporter Spokane Valley/County Beat
We're looking for a full-time reporter cover Spokane Valley and Spokane County and join our fast-paced newsroom. We want a reporter with government reporting experience who knows how to pursue a story and can quickly pivot to cover a wide variety of topics. We are a relatively young newsroom with a lot of energy and a very aggressive approach to local news. We're a family-owned, 75,000-circ newspaper with a newsroom of 55 people.
This position includes a full suite of benefits including medical, dental, life insurance, EAP, LTD, paid vacation, holidays and sick time, a matching 401(k) program and more! Please visit our careers site: www.https://careers.spokesman.com to create a profile and then apply for this job.
This position serves to contribute to The Spokesman-Review's mission to inform its audience through accurate, thorough, helpful, fair and lively reporting and writing about Spokane County and Spokane Valley. This position requires pursuing at least one Spokane County and one Spokane Valley story a day. This position' emphasis will be to highlight mostly positive developments with regards to development projects and the people connected to those projects within Spokane County and Spokane Valley.
GENERAL RESPONSIBILITIES
· Prepare accurate, fair, balanced and carefully researched stories and multimedia posts to meet assigned deadlines.
· Attend and report on planning and development opportunities within Spokane County. This includes attending city council and planning and zoning meetings/events.
· Pursue and report on public opinion/input on development opportunities.
· Build strong sources within the identified 'beat', extending beyond just official sources. Be able to keep the beat fresh with new ideas. Stay ahead of stories, anticipate changes, and write/publish those stories ahead of competitors. Clearly understand the beat in order to write with authority.
· Demonstrate appropriate focus on stories that matter to our audience and to the public record, using identified Key Performance Indicators made available to help you to improve audience relevance.
· Able to stay ahead and out front of the competition, local or national competitors, specifically on the primary 'beat' with regards to key daily and enterprise stories.
· Be willing and able to localize a national story when appropriate, and do it quickly when needed.
· Write at least seven (7) stories a week, with at least five (5) that are published in our print edition. Maintain a standard of at least 10,000 weekly online page views.
· Finished stories should be clear and concise; self-edit for clean copy that can be posted quickly when needed for competitive reasons.
· Able to take photos, shoot simple video or record audio or anything that can easily be done with a mobile phone that will help tell the story or serve our readers; not relying solely on staff photographers for mug shots, especially those that will only run once.
· Able to grow the total size of your journalism's audience; ensuring stories have appropriate headlines, especially for the website, adapting to the changes in print circulation and growth opportunities with our digital audience. Key indicators are the amount of times readers continue to turn to your stories and the amount of time your audience spends with your stories.
· Utilize art possibilities for every story, both in print and online, to increase and improve audience engagement; pull in graphics, design, photo and online team members so they can gain a better understanding of the story, when appropriate.
· Demonstrate ability to seek out and act quickly on story opportunities on all platforms used by our news organization. Aggressively follow through on stories, including interacting in a professional capacity with readers after publication through comments or other engaging tools. This means using those avenues to find follow-up information and expand on stories.
· Pitch stories for newspaper's front page and homepage when appropriate.
· Promote and assist in the development and facilitation of events designed to promote public awareness and readership of The Spokesman-Review.
· Participate and provide positive experiences at company events as a liaison with key audiences/stakeholders such as community members, readers, service providers, donors, etc
JOB REQUIREMENTS
· Create a positive attitude that cultivates a sense of camaraderie and chemistry in our newsroom that helps us not only achieve our goals but exceed them. This positivity is essential as we focus on helping our newspaper go forward with strategies aimed at our longtime survival.
· Proficient in use of a computer and smartphone, including use of Newsgate and Django content management systems. Demonstrate ability to create create hyperlinks, attach photos, understand SEO and Key Performance Indicators. Abilty to use a smartphone to files stories and multimedia from the field and to stay current with news events. Demonstrate social media skills on Twitter, Facebook and any emerging social media networks as a way to both promote and and enhance your journalism.
· Regular attendance is required as well as punctuality for assigned meetings, works shifts and interviews. Ability to work in adverse conditions and unusual schedules when news breaks.
· Must understand and uphold the standards, ethics and mission of journalism at The Spokesman-Review on all platforms.
· Premium on organizational skills, able to meet changing deadlines, deal with multiple stories at once, keep supervisors abreast of developments, and work with other staff members on stories.
· Read The Spokesman-Review, both in print and online, and stay current with all relative news sources.
· Maintain a high degree of professionalism in representing The Spokesman-Review, always striving for fairness and accuracy.
· Some travel will be required to cover events/stories.
EDUCATION and/or EXPERIENCE
Bachelor's degree (B.A.) in Journalism from four-year college or university, or equivalent experience.