The Hechinger Report is looking for a reporter in the South for our website and for collaborations with our national and local news partners. This writer will focus primarily on early childhood education. In addition to joining our award-winning team of reporters covering early childhood, they will also cover topics in K-12 and higher ed in the South. 

The reporter will cover stories about the region through the lens of Hechinger’s mission to reveal inequality and examine solutions and innovations in the field. The reporter will be based in Alabama, Arkansas, Florida, Georgia, Kentucky, Louisiana, Mississippi, North Carolina, South Carolina, Tennessee, or West Virginia, and will involve travel to communities throughout the South and occasionally to Hechinger’s headquarters in New York City. This position will report to an editor based in Maryland.  

In addition to long-form enterprise and investigative stories, the reporter will occasionally contribute to a bimonthly newsletter about early childhood education. Reporter must have the ability to juggle multiple long-form stories and meet deadlines. Experience writing about marginalized or traditionally disenfranchised communities is required. 

This position is paid $58,500/year. Because we are housed at Teachers College, this position will also receive the College's comprehensive benefits package described here.

Minimum Qualifications:

• Degree in journalism or related field

• Excellent news judgement and ability to spot trends and important stories

• Able to write with style and confidence about complicated topics in a way that engages readers in the general public

• Experience covering education for a news outlet

• Knowledge of education issues in South

• Ability to collaborate with a variety of people 

• Experience taking photographs for news coverage 

Preferred Qualifications:

• At least 2 years experience as a full-time reporter at a news outlet

• Comfortable writing about complex education research

• Experience writing a newsletter

• Confidence and experience appearing in broadcast media

• Comfort with using data in reporting