Audience Writer

ProPublica is hiring an experienced writer to adapt our investigative journalism in multiple formats to meet the needs of our audience’s changing news habits. Over the past year, we’ve prioritized presenting our reporting in a number of ways — including explainers, service guides, Q&As with reporters and takeaways — to better serve readers. This role will play an essential role in meeting our growing ambitions to reach and engage new audiences.

We’re looking for someone who is passionate about experimenting with creative approaches to telling stories; who can work collaboratively with reporters and editors; and who knows how to connect the dots between stories to contextualize the news for readers. 

The person in this role will work closely with staffers across the newsroom to produce short-form sections for newsletters and written-through standalone pieces that bring dimension and life to our journalism. They should bring a strong understanding of audience best practices and should be able to deliver sharp, quick and error-free copy. 

This is a full-time role that will report directly to the audience manager for newsletters, search and partnerships and will work most closely with the newsletter team, which sits within the 14-person ProPublica audience team.

What You’ll Do Here 

• Present investigative projects in email and other formats, on- and off-platform. This will include writing templated sections like intros and deep dives, as well as experimenting with new forms. 
• Adapt our investigations into standalone pieces (such as takeaways or explainers) informed by audience data and search optimization best practices.
• Work closely with reporters and editors to deeply understand their work, including interviewing staffers, collaborating on standalone pieces and drafting language for their review. 
• Collaborate with the audience and product teams on finding new audiences and building long-term relationships with readers. 
• Write and edit concise, compelling headlines and social copy for stories, as needed.
• Use analytics to make data-informed decisions about your stories.
• Produce newsletters using our email service provider, Sailthru. 

We’re Looking for Someone With:

• A minimum of 4 years’ experience writing and producing newsletters. You should be able to write clear, compelling copy on deadline and be proficient with email service providers such as Sailthru.
• Prior experience at a news organization, or familiarity with newsrooms and investigative journalism. 
• Solid basic reporting and research skills. You should be comfortable conducting interviews with both members of our newsroom and other sources, verifying information and picking up the phone when necessary. Your copy should conform to AP style. 
• A firm commitment to accuracy, high editorial standards and unassailable journalism ethics.  
• A demonstrated ability to find and engage with new audiences. You should bring creative approaches for connecting with the communities and people we cover and contextualizing our work, and have practice measuring how your efforts resonate with readers. 
• Ability to work in a fast-paced environment and meet multiple deadlines across several projects. You’ll need to stay organized and focused.
• Prior experience writing compelling, concise headlines and decks as well as social copy for your assigned stories.
• Familiarity with Parse.ly, Google Analytics, Google Trends and other audience tools to analyze interest to make data-informed decisions.
• Experience with project-management software such as Trello, Airtable or Notion.
• The self-discipline to work independently, as well as an eagerness to work with teammates on collaborative projects.
• Ability to travel as needed for assignments, team training and meetings. 

What We’re Looking for in Applicants

We want to see your work and learn how you think about it. The application form will allow you to send us three projects from your portfolio; these can be individual emails, a newsletter series or similar work that demonstrates your ability to capture a reader’s attention and clearly present information. 

The application also includes the space to walk us through your contributions to those projects. Take advantage of this to tell us about your process, from behind-the-scenes wins you’re proud of to any challenges you responded to along the way. What made you pursue it? How did you evaluate it when it was finished? 

This job is full time and includes benefits. ProPublica is based in New York, but we’re open to remote candidates. We have offices in New York City; Washington, D.C.; Atlanta; Chicago; Phoenix; and Berkeley, California. Applicants must be eligible to work in the U.S.

The expected salary range for this position is $90,000 to $95,000.

This is a good-faith estimate of what we expect to pay for this position. The final salary figure will take into account a person’s experience, accomplishment and location. ProPublica is committed to paying its staff equitably, and these ranges should not be considered career salary limits or caps.

We will begin reviewing applications as we receive them, but we will continue to consider candidates as long as the posting remains live on our site.

Questions? Send an email to talent@propublica.org. 

No phone calls, please.