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K-12 Education Lab Reporter

Job Description

The Dallas Morning News’ Education Lab is seeking an ambitious journalist to cover K-12 schools in North Texas, helping readers understand how state education policy impacts them and their children, and holding accountable state educational leaders, districts, public schools, private schools and homeschools.

The Education Lab is an award-winning, dynamic team that leads the state in providing context in breaking education news as well as revealing, smart enterprise stories. The Education Lab, which is supported by community funding from foundations and philanthropists, is committed to deepening the conversations around education through journalism and public engagement.

We’re seeking a reporter comfortable talking to parents, students and teachers; building relationships with school officials and policymakers, filing public information requests and poring over public records to find meaningful stories.

We’re looking for candidates with at least two years of experience in journalism who have a bachelor’s degree in journalism or a related field. We prefer candidates with prior education reporting or editing experience. Candidates must have an understanding of how best to serve our digital and print audiences. Education is a data-driven beat, so there’s a huge plus in knowing how to use Excel, Access or other data tools.

The Dallas Morning News believes a collaborative and inclusive work environment is essential to a thriving workplace for all. We are in search of a diverse group of candidates. It’s our mission to reach underserved communities, many of which include Spanish-speaking families. Fluency in Spanish is an advantage.

We are in the office three days a week. We believe this is key to a thriving and inclusive workplace that develops and supports one another as we produce revelatory work with our community in mind daily.

An application should include a memo on how you would cover the beat.

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.

Benefit Offerings:

* Internal Diversity, Equity and Inclusion Committee
* Internal Culture Committee
* Leadership Development Programs
* Annual Unconscious Bias Training
* Flexible Work Schedules
* Monthly Webinars addressing Health & Wealth for all employees
* Medical/Dental and Vision insurance
* MDLive Telemedicine 24/7/365 access to board certified doctors via computer or phone
* FMLA and Parental Leave
* Onsite Fitness Center
* Retirement benefits, including employer contributions
* Employee Assistance Program
* 18 Paid Time Off Days

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.
* At least two years of reporting experience, ideally in education.
* Strong sourcing, writing and reporting skills. Track record of memorable enterprise work and breaking news.
* Aptitude for budget data, public records and legal filings.
* Valid driver’s license and registered vehicle to travel to assignments.
* Familiarity with Texas education is a plus.
* Expertise with Excel, Access or other data tools is a plus.
* Fluency in Spanish is an advantage.

Skills:

* Proficient in learning digital content management tools
* Use social media for newsgathering and audience development
* 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
* Use accepted newsroom tools for planning, authoring, communicating, etc.
* 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.

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