Public Safety & Breaking News Reporter

Full-Time Regular (30 or more hours per week)

Cedar Rapids, IA, US

The Gazette in Cedar Rapids, Iowa, seeks a public safety and breaking news reporter who is focused on keeping our audience safe. You’ll be focused on local, state and federal criminal justice systems, police fire and EMS services in our region and also work with social service agencies doing adjacent work.

This isn’t a job for writing daily police briefs. Our ideal candidate is interested in being the go-to for reporting on crises, crimes and emergency services. You have a mindset for accountability and watchdog journalism, but strive to fairly report the complexity and split seconds decisions that are involved in public safety. We’re interested in a tenacious reporter who strives to find layers to the story and works to share it with our audience. We want a journalist with high ethical standards, strong relationship building skills – for individuals, organizations and the community. You must be persistent, have a strong ethical compass while working for information, even when some doors may slam shut.

Our ideal reporter is accurate, maintains impartiality, is deadline-oriented and a concise writer. You must cut through jargon. You’ll have an investigative mindset and should always work to help our audience understand the bigger picture. You’ll focus on quick updates to online, but also circle back and do more in-depth enterprise reporting. You are self-driven with strong news judgment, have critical thinking skills are are adept at obtaining and scouring reports or public records.

Our ideal candidate will have strong news judgment, able to be accurate with a passion for digital news, and be thinking of the bigger picture and trends. You should have basic data skills, and be able to convey key points and have solid writing and interviewing skills. You should also expect to work in close coordination with our legal reporter.

This is a full-time position, which generally works Monday-Friday during daytime hours. The role is one one of the early-risers in the newsroom, so that we have an updated website to compete with other outlets.

Expected functions of the position:

• Respond with urgency to breaking news, producing information with a digital audience in mind.
• Drive audience and digital growth while producing engaging and timely content.
• Ability and comfort in an array of topics outside of public safety.
• Strong understanding of ethics and desire to explore news events speaking to officials as well as those impacted by events.

Desired Qualifications:

• Bachelor’s degree in journalism, communication, English or a related field and three or more years of related experience is strongly preferred.
• Ability to juggle a variety of deadlines and to work quickly and accurately while meeting deadlines.
• Ability to find the unexpected in data and routine documents.
• Ability to take and edit photos and video on as needed basis.

The Cedar Rapids and Iowa City area are located on the Eastern side of Iowa, about a four hour drive from Chicago, Minneapolis, St. Louis and Omaha. Cedar Rapids is home to a variety of engineering, food processing and agricultural industries, while Iowa City is home to the University of Iowa, a major Big Ten research university world-renown for writing. The area is rich with activities, entertainment, trails and things to provide for a rich life outside of work hours.

The Gazette is a tion of Adams MultiMedia, an equal opportunity employer.

All qualified applicants will receive consideration for employment without regard to race, color, religion, sex, sexual orientation, gender identity, national origin, disability or veteran status.