Breaking News Reporter Job at Dallas News Corp. in Dallas

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Job Title

Staff Writer

Education

Bachelor's Degree

Location

Downtown Dallas (TDMN) - Dallas, TX 75201 US (Primary)

Salary Grade

Job Type

Full-Time

Exemption Type

Non-Exempt

Travel

Some Travel

Job Description

The Dallas Morning News has an opening for a breaking news reporter who will cover a full range of news both quickly and accurately. This is a key position that gets the newsroom off to a fast start. The ideal candidate is fast, aggressive in seeking out stories, productive, accurate, and has strong SEO headline writing skills. They need to move easily and effectively between high-interest aggregation and high-impact enterprise. Public safety reporting is an integral part of the job.

We're looking for a strong writer with breaking news experience who is eager to go out into the community to cover spot news and to amplify our storytelling — someone with the initiative to dig deep into accountability and public records reporting around breaking news. While top-of-funnel briefs are a key part of the job, we're looking for a journalist who is capable and willing to dig deeper to tell the next-day story that differentiates us from the competition and injects humanity into crime stories.

You should have the ability to synthesize information quickly, as well as the skill to develop, write and present compelling articles to engage digital and print audiences. We want a journalist that is eager to be a part of a collaborative team. Someone with a keen appreciation for what it takes to draw a highly engaged audience to our website on a regular basis. Someone that is comfortable finding stories from trending topics and social media for our site’s top-of-funnel readers.

The hours are Monday through Friday 6 a.m. to 3 p.m.

The Dallas Morning News recognizes different perspectives and backgrounds drive the innovation and ideas that are essential to our business success. To that end, we are committed to attracting and retaining a diverse staff. Diversity, equity and inclusion will be embedded in the hiring, promotion and development of our employees, in reaching diverse audiences with our content, and in choosing the companies with which we do business.

Essential Functions:

• Always report fairly, accurately and thoroughly
• Ensure reporting offers a window on the communities we serve, that reflect their spirit, their personalities, their diversity
• Shows a strong understanding of open records requests and other investigative tools and tactics
• Dig for and gather news and information; synthesize it in strong prose
• Make use of visual elements to augment storytelling
• Build subject matter expertise and audience around a topic, cultivate sources and generate story ideas
• Aggregate topical news from other credible sources and add value
• Use social media both as a reporting tool and as a venue for promoting work and engaging productively with relevant audiences
• Adhere to company values and newsroom guidelines, including standards of journalism ethics
• Assists with planning for photos, graphics, illustrations to enhance the visual quality of stories and gathers supplemental assets to improve digital presentations
• Write headlines that sell a story across platform

Job Requirements

Here’s our list of preferred skills and experience: (Please note this is not a checklist of requirements, but should be considered as a pool of preferred qualifications. If you can already do some of these things, great. If you're excited about figuring out how to do all of them, great! We'd love to hear from you either way.)

• Bachelor’s degree in journalism or related fields or relevant experience.
• Generally less than seven years of related reporting experience (most entry-level candidates typically have had at least one professional newsroom internship).

Skills:

• Use social media for newsgathering and audience development
• Basic photo editing
• Comfort with fast-paced incremental storytelling (e.g., producing social media updates, updating online stories)
• Basic data literacy and analysis and ability to build simple charts, graphs, maps with in-house tools
• Demonstrated ability to gather, edit and post basic video and audio
• Demonstrated ability to work remotely via smartphone or laptop computer
• Demonstrated ability to interpret audience analytics to inform newsgathering decisions
• Understanding of platforms and audiences and ability to compose stories appropriate to the platform of publication (e.g., voice, style, formatting, hyperlinks)
• Basic knowledge of SEO and social headline writing techniques
• Collaborate effectively with team members and across newsroom teams
• Spanish language skills are a plus; written and oral fluency is required for Al Dia staff writers.

News you can use regarding Dallas Morning News:

The Dallas Morning News is Texas’ leading daily newspaper with a bedrock journalistic reputation, intense regional focus and close community ties. We are dedicated to covering the issues that impact everyday lives in North Texas. More than 12 million people a month read The News’ content published in print, online or digitally. Founded in 1885, The News maintains one of the largest newsrooms in Texas and has won nine Pulitzer Prizes.

We believe our community is best served by a diverse newsroom that fosters an inclusive work environment for people from all backgrounds, regardless of race, gender, age or sexual orientation.

Why Join Us? We Invest in Your Success and Well-Being

We believe in creating a supportive, inclusive, and engaging work environment. Here are just a few of the benefits and perks we offer:

Work-Life Balance & Flexibility

• Flexible Work Schedules
• 18 Paid Time Off Days & 9 Paid Holidays
• 12 Weeks of Paid Parental Leave
• 8 Hours of Community Service Time Off
• Comprehensive Medical, Dental, and Vision Insurance
• MDLive Telemedicine – 24/7/365 Access to Board-Certified Doctors
• Monthly Webinars on Health & Wealth Topics for All Employees
• Onsite Fitness Center
• Pet Insurance

Professional Growth & Development

• Leadership Development Programs
• Internal Diversity, Equity, and Inclusion Committee
• Internal Culture Committee
• Retirement Benefits, Including Employer Contributions