Local News Reporter

We’re looking to make mutiple critical additions to our talented local news and enterprise team at The Mercury News and East Bay Times. We have positions open in the East Bay and South Bay.

You will handle a torrent of breaking news in the birthplace of Silicon Valley – from crime and housing to politics and development. The ideal beat reporter has the energy to jump from one hot story to the next in an intensely competitive news environment, and the initiative and time-management skills to dig deep when impactful enterprise opportunities emerge. You’ll tap into the successes and challenges of local government, from town councils to school boards, and keep a thumb on the pulse of an engaged populace. You should be able to work both alone and collaboratively with a rotating cast of reporters and editors.

You will work in real time, publishing words, sounds and images individually and in collaboration with colleagues. We serve a savvy, sophisticated audience that includes millions of online readers and hundreds of thousands of people who read our printed newspapers.

If you’re the ideal candidate, you’ll have these qualities:

Excellent news judgment and a drive to compete
Demonstrated ability to write sharp, clean copy that draws readers in, including nut graphs and online headlines
The skill to mine human sources, documents and data, including a facility for obtaining and using public records
The ability to juggle multiple stories of varying complexity, from quick news posts under intense deadline pressure to daily news stories and longer-term enterprise or features
Proficiency at using the web and social media to report stories and to share them
At least two years experience as a working journalist, preferably including at least some coverage of politics and government, breaking news, business and the environment.

In our diverse region, facility with multiple languages is a plus.

The salary range for this job is $52,000-$62,500 depending on experience and qualifications. Email your resume, 6-10 clips and a cover letter highlighting your vision for the job to newsjobs@bayareanewsgroup.com to convince us why you're the right person to join our local news team. Please put the words "Peninsula news job" in the subject line of your email.