Houston Landing Houston , TX 77006
Posted 1 week ago
The Houston Landing is looking for individuals to add to our team of passionate people on a mission to advance democracy in our communities and strengthen the lives of all Houstonians one story at a time. Houston Landing is an independent, nonpartisan news organization devoted to public service journalism. Initially supported by three of Houston’s leading philanthropies including Arnold Ventures, The Houston Endowment, and the Kinder Foundation, we are building a team to support our efforts in sustainability and revenue growth. Houston Landing is seeking an enterprising journalist to report on three all-important education topics: early education, literacy and STEM.
This is a new position created as part of the Landing’s expansion of its education team, which will feature five reporters, an editor focused solely on education coverage and an audience engagement producer embedded within the team. Compensation is commensurate with experience, with a minimum salary of $70,000.
This position offers a unique opportunity to take a regional, student-focused approach to the most consequential topics affecting the children of Houston. We believe there’s enough coverage of school boards, superintendents and politics. And we believe there’s not enough attention paid to the most elemental pieces of a child’s education. Our creation of this position is driven by three comments we repeatedly hear from local education and business leaders:
To that end, we are interested in stories that:
This position does not involve dedicated coverage of specific school districts. Rather, it involves telling stories through a regional lens or focusing on interesting stories from across the region’s 100 traditional public and charter school districts. We likely will place specific emphasis on our larger districts, and this reporter will collaborate on occasion with our two reporters dedicated to beat coverage of five large Houston-area districts.
We envision this as a position that primarily involves enterprise and investigative work, with some daily beat coverage. We recognize this is a nontraditional education reporting beat. That’s why we’re seeking an imaginative, inquisitive journalist who embraces the challenge of carving out an important niche — with the ultimate goal of creating impact and driving the conversation in Houston’s vast education landscape.
Requirements
What we seek:
We encourage all interested applicants to apply. Each of the following skills is preferred, though not all are required.
Required:
This reporter will report to Team Leader Jacob Carpenter, an experienced education journalist who has been a finalist for the IRE, National Headliner and Livingston awards. The reporter will also collaborate closely with the audience engagement producer, developing strategies for creating and distributing content that reaches our target audiences. In addition to our two reporters covering five school districts, our general assignment education reporter will be available to assist on occasion with covering breaking news, creating explainers and guides, and helping with other day-to-day coverage.
Benefits
Our Values
EXCELLENCE: We wake up every day with the intent to be the best at what we do. We hustle. We have grit. When we make mistakes, we quickly correct and learn from them.
INCLUSION: We aren’t all the same, and those differences are what make us better. We’ll respect each person’s uniqueness. Perspective, context and life experiences help us to tell the story.
AMBITION: We will be bold and creative, open to all ideas big or small. We really mean it.
FUN: We are not making widgets, although there is nothing wrong with widgets. We tell stories - and stories are often fun, so we believe in having lots of fun.
COLLABORATION: We are all in this together. We may not always agree, but we will listen to each other and communicate candidly and respectfully.
Benefits
We’re committed to building an inclusive organization that represents the people and communities we serve. We encourage members of traditionally underrepresented communities to apply, including women, people of color, veterans, LGBTQ+ people and people with disabilities.
Houston Landing