Community Issues Reporter

The Ledger-Enquirer in Columbus, Georgia, is looking for an aggressive, enterprising reporter to join its award-winning newsroom right along the Chattahoochee River and regularly produce quality work that quickly and effectively checks the power of local officials.

Whether you want to make a permanent home with us or desire to get to a bigger market, the Ledger-Enquirer will give you a place to grow and learn in an environment where you can make a major impact in our community.

The Ledger-Enquirer is part of McClatchy, a digitally driven company focused on innovation, with newsrooms in dozens of communities in the United States. We’re seeking an accountability reporter who will do in-depth work in the areas of local government, state government, criminal justice and more.

This reporter will be specifically focused on work that holds local powerful officials accountable by shedding light on their actions and decisions, and asking important questions about how those actions and decisions affect the community. They will need to be tuned into important questions that community members want answers to. They also must be able to determine how to best deliver easily-digestible accountability work to our audience in order to assure it contributes to meaningful change in the market.

In order to accomplish this, the reporter will be versatile and resourceful. They must be able to analyze public records and sift through data to find stories that deliver good accountability reporting. They must also be able to build strong sourcing in our community, and must bring a passion for in-depth work that can be done quickly.

This role also offers the chance to live in a community that boasts natural beauty, a vibrant arts scene and is within driving distance of one of the United States’ largest metropolitan areas.

What You'll Bring

Focus on stories that build readership, and how to write them for the audiences we seek to serve
Demonstrate speed, competitiveness and SEO savvy
Work well in a team environment
Incorporate multimedia elements when it helps better tell the story.

An ideal candidate should have a college degree or equivalent experience and have three years of experience in professional journalism.

They should also have:

Strong writing skills, excellent news judgment and a demonstrated ability to see how and why a story will matter to readers
Commitment to accurate, ethical journalism.
Ability to build source networks and consistently contribute new story ideas
Ability to work collaboratively to aggressively tackle stories.
Comfort with a job that will be demanding, fast-paced and constantly evolving
Ability to comprehend data, public records and business reports