The historic Chicago Defender is looking for ambitious, creative, and talented journalists to focus on politics, education, government policy, business, tech, and current events to join our Freelance team to create relevant and informative content for our publication.
We are a multi-media content provider of news, information, and events that cover the interests of the African American community with culturally relevant content not regularly serviced by mainstream media.
Responsibilities include:
- Uncover, pitch, and report newsworthy stories in Chicago and surrounding suburbs. The successful candidate will have the ability to sum up the facts into meaningful, concise reports and the skill to connect breaking stories to discussions of broader issues.
- Ensure articles are accurate and objective
Establish contacts and sources to use in future research
Contribute to monthly editorial meetings - Stay up to date with local, national, and international affairs.
- Write timely and accurate news stories, following the best practices of SEO, storytelling, and audience engagement.
- Experience writing for news publications, preferably covering local news, politics, business, and education.
- Ability to generate engaging headlines
- A keen eye for detail and the ability to weave a narrative for feature-length stories
- Ability to deliver clean, grammatical copy on a tight deadline
- Demonstrated ability to write clearly about complex issues and ideas
Requirements
- Familiarity with the Chicago Defender and its editorial voice
- Exceptional writing and reporting skills
- Social media content creation skills are a plus
- Excellent news sense and understanding of digital media trends
- Having a local understanding of the city of Chicago and its surrounding suburbs is necessary.
- Computer proficiency (MS Office, digital editing, web search, and databases)
- Ability to follow strict deadlines and fact-check information
- Broad knowledge of headlines, hot topics, business, community, local and national issues
Please use this form to apply for our Executive Editor and Freelance Reporter openings. You may apply for both positions simultaneously using this form.