Trending Reporter

Courier-Post (courierpostonline.com) in Cherry Hill, New Jersey, part of the USA Today Network, has an opening for a full-time trending reporter.

We are looking for a new teammate who can handle trending news and crime as well as trending news and is comfortable with watchdog journalism and community reporting. Our ideal candidate will also have the ability to pivot to high-interest and revenue-centric topics such as real estate, business development and cost-of-living features.

A strong social game is important, as most of our traffic comes from web searches and social media shares. We are a digitally focused newsroom, so comfort and familiarity with a variety of storytelling styles - traditional headline-and-copy, bullet lists and charticles, video and multimedia, etc. - is essential to immediate and sustainable success. Experience with search engine optimization (SEO), or interest in learning SEO best practices, will be critical toward success in this role.

Our digital focus includes a commitment to growing our subscriber base, so the right candidate will know how to identify stories that speak to a loyal audience and encourage casual viewers to trust the Courier-Post to deliver their news.

Responsibilities:

• Create news content that captures and engages the audience, using metrics and past performance to inform and guide your storytelling approach
• Break stories accurately and quickly, recognizing the need to get confirmed information up now and then add detail and context
• Develop a deep source list within the community that includes real people, professionals, public officials and community groups and organizations
• Understand how to request public documents and accurately interpret them for inclusion in meaningful storytelling
• Identify trending stories that matter for our audience and develop unique storytelling that separates our coverage from our competitors’
• Work with the Regional News Director to evaluate what's working and what's not, and hone your storytelling
• Collaborate with colleagues in and out of the Courier-Post newsroom to strengthen your storytelling, including additional reporting, photos, videos, etc.
• Capture photos and video as needed
• Use social media in an engaging, professional manner that promotes your personal brand, the brands of colleagues and the institutional brand
• Demonstrate ability to develop, tweak and hone headlines and social media chatter to reach more of our loyal audience

Requirements:

• Bachelor's degree
• Combination of education and experience relevant to journalism
• Strong communication, planning and organizational skills
• Exposure to and success in a deadline-driven environment
• Social-media and SEO knowledge
• Comfort with self-guided work as well as collaborative production
• Command of journalism skills that lead to developing fair, balanced and accurate content in a publish-ready state

How To Apply:

We want to know more about you and how you’ll bring your energy and excitement to the job. Tell us what’s not on your resume that makes you the journalist we need to bring into the newsroom. Put together a single document in a PDF format, that includes the following, in order:

• Your resume, limited to one or two pages
• A cover letter outlining your approach to journalism, how you’ll bring that to the job and what you know about South Jersey
• Links to three to five online examples of your work that highlight your range in storytelling and offer insight on what you would bring to the team.

It is important that these items be assembled into a single document and uploaded in PDF format. Completing these steps will ensure that your application receives the highest consideration.

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