Illinois Statehouse Ag and Food reporter

Position: IL Statehouse Ag and Food Reporter
Experience level: Minimum 3+ years’ experience as an investigative reporter and writer; 2-3 years working as a statehouse/government reporter; intermediate data skills including using spreadsheets to analyze and visualize data and ability to do basic cleaning of data.
Education level: Bachelor’s or Master’s degree, preferably in journalism with an emphasis in investigative and data journalism or equivalent experience.
Position overview: Full-time, 40 hours a week; medical, dental, vision benefits available

This reporter will thrive on reporting and telling stories with data and documents in a newsroom of experienced and dedicated journalists mostly working remotely. This reporter will build a network of sources and experts, find and analyze relevant data, file document requests (e.g., FOIA), and write articles for publication online that will be shared with partner newsrooms. We value team players with a willingness to learn, teach and experiment.

This investigative reporter will focus solely and exclusively on the impact of agriculture policy and the policy makers, lobbyists and influencers at the state level. The reporter will write about the real-life impacts on the regional food system resulting from the policies and laws passed at the state level. This is not a daily reporting/writing position.

This position will dig into existing state policies and issues that negatively affect the environment, labor and work safety, as well as farming policies that alternatively could help strengthen local policies and movements, but have yet to gain traction and the reasons why.

You will report to the Investigate Midwest managing editor and interact daily with the team and award-winning journalists in a highly collaborative newsroom. The stories you work on may appear locally, regionally, nationally or even internationally.

This is a full-time, salaried position. The reporter must be based in the greater-Springfield area of Illinois and regularly report and interview from the statehouse Capitol.

As a member of Investigate Midwest’s team, you are expected to:

Write 2 stories/month
Contribute 1 major project every 3 months
Fact-check and produce reference/citation lists
Submit at least one records request/week
Write the Graphic of the Week once a month
Generate original story ideas and regularly pitch to your editor

Preferred qualities:

Familiarity with industrial agribusiness, food systems issues and the state level policy-making process
Experience covering complex issues
Ability to submit and negotiate public records requests with a variety of government agencies
Fluency in Spanish
Proficiency in data journalism using programs like Excel, SQL, and GIS. Ability to use R or Python is a plus.

Investigate Midwest is an equal employment opportunity employer and we seek to increase diversity in our own operation and in the news media. We encourage individuals from communities traditionally underrepresented in this field to apply. All qualified applicants will receive consideration for employment and will not be discriminated against on the basis of race, color, sex, sexual orientation, gender identity, religion, disability, age, genetic information, veteran status, ancestry, or national or ethnic origin.