Retail, Real Estate & Business Reporter

The Bellingham Herald in Whatcom County, Wash., is looking for a smart, energetic journalist to discover and cover news across our mountainous, coastal community just south of British Columbia, Canada. The Retail, Real Estate & Business Reporter will be expected to move fast when news breaks while producing larger stories that make a difference in the lives of our readers by holding officials accountable and unearthing the impact of their actions. This position will be responsible for collecting accurate, pertinent information by interview, observation, research and/or investigation about newsworthy events in the community. Develop detailed plans for columns and present to editors for consideration. Once approved, creatively and persuasively write columns that will be of interest to readers in print and online. This individual will be required to conceive and independently produce headlines for stories on deadline. This beat is all about job news that will affect readers' lives: Who's hiring, who's laying off, who's investing in Whatcom. Explores trends and needs in our workforce and business landscape, including the underemployed. This position places a heavy focus on major employers, including agriculture, real estate, construction, industry, marine, higher education, and speaks to the people who work in those industries, are retired from those industries, hope to advance themselves in those industries and their educational opportunities, as well as the many businesses that support those industries.

About 30 percent of this job includes the Restaurants and Retail beat that quickly and aggressively alerts consumers to the openings, closings and changes to popular retail businesses, restaurant and services that attract an extraordinary amount of readership.