Logan Square, Humboldt Park and Avondale Reporter

Block Club Chicago is looking for a full-time reporter to cover Logan Square, Humboldt Park and Avondale. Apply by Sept. 25.

Block Club Chicago, a nonprofit news organization focused on Chicago’s diverse neighborhoods, is looking for a full-time reporter to cover Logan Square, Avondale and Humboldt Park.

This is a beat reporting position, and the beat is a group of neighborhoods including Logan Square, Avondale and Humboldt Park.

You’ll be expected to cover everything from local school council meetings and breaking news to restaurant openings and real estate developments. Night meetings are common. This is not a 9–5 job (though it is typically Monday-Friday).

Block Club reporters are expected to build sources and contacts in the communities they cover. Plan on getting texts and emails from neighbors and becoming a well-known fixture in your neighborhood. This is a remote position (we want you to be embedded in the community), but we’ll have staff meetings in our Downtown office and you’ll check in with your editor several times a day.

This is not a job for someone who wants to write one story a week. You’ll be expected to have one or two fresh stories daily. There will be opportunities to work on longer-form investigative pieces, but the majority of the job is keeping your readers up to date on daily news from the neighborhood.
The Skills

Familiarity with Logan Square, Avondale and Humboldt Park (residents or former residents of these neighborhoods a plus)

At least two years of reporting experience — please include news clips and not marketing or copywriting samples

Ability to shoot your own photos in the field

Experience promoting your stories on social media

Ability to generate story ideas and willingness to hear from neighbors and readers

Experience covering community meetings or a neighborhood beat a plus

Willingness and ability to cover breaking news and turn around stories quickly
The Perks

Salary: Commensurate on experience; range starts at $60,000

Full benefits (medical, dental, vision), 401K

Generous vacation policy, plus paid holidays, paid sick and maternity leave

Supportive, scrappy, tight-knit editorial team
Requirements

This position is based in Chicago and requires the person to live in the Chicago area.

This is a work-from-home role, but the reporter should expect to work from the neighborhoods they serve several days a week and sometimes work from our Downtown office.

A commitment to diversity, equity and inclusion is required. Block Club believes the diversity of our community is a fundamental strength of our region. Our mission is best fulfilled when we embrace diversity as a value and a practice. We maintain that achieving diversity requires an enduring commitment to inclusion that must find full expression in our organizational culture, values, norms and behaviors. Throughout our work, we will support diversity in all of its forms, encompassing but not limited to age, disability status, economic circumstance, ethnicity, gender, race, religion and sexual orientation.
How To Apply

Send us an email telling us why you’d be a good fit for the job along with your resume and 3 or 4 of your best stories to jobs (at) blockclubchi (dot) org along with two references. Put “Logan Square Reporter” in the subject line, please! Email is jobs@blockclubchi.org.

Deadline to apply: Sept. 25, 2023.