Weekend General Assignment Reporter

Oregon Public Broadcasting • Portland, OR

4h • $34 - $38

About The Position

OPB is seeking a voracious reporter to stay on top of breaking news on the weekends! This reporter will be a self-starter and multitasking expert who will contribute written, audio, and occasionally visual content on breaking news and enterprise stories on the weekends, and serve as a general assignment reporter Wednesday through Friday. The ideal candidate for this role will not only produce exemplary reporting for OPB's website, digital platforms, and radio magazines, but will successfully organize and communicate these stories to weekday colleagues for strong continued coverage early in the week. If you're a reporter who is hungry to cover topics from parades to protests, this might be the beat for you!

The Weekend General Assignment Reporter covers breaking news and general assignment stories for OPB on a variety of topics and develops strong enterprise off the news as time allows. The bulk of this reporter-producer’s newsgathering efforts will focus on responding to breaking news and creating content for OPB’s weekend audiences. In any given shift, this reporter-producer should expect to produce and file radio actualities, write text stories for a digital audience, and may be tasked with shooting digital video. The person in this role may also be called on to produce interviews for hosts on radio broadcast shows Morning Edition, All Things Considered or Weekend Edition, particularly on news topics that develop on weekends. This position involves daily research, writing, online filing, photography, voicing, and production.

Requirements

• Bachelor’s degree in Journalism, Communications or related field or the equivalent combination of education, training and experience that provides the requisite knowledge, skills and abilities for this position.
• 3 years equivalent full-time professional experience as a journalist.
• Experience developing and maintaining a beat and sources
• Experience covering breaking news
• Strong writing and interviewing skills
• Strong organizational and time management skills
• Familiarity with photography, audio, video and social media in the presentation of news stories
• Commitment to high ethical standards in reporting
• Ability to file live reports and participate in breaking news
• Some radio production experience
• Enthusiasm for the mission of OPB
• Enthusiasm for the changing news production environment and the tools and software used to facilitate our work

Nice To Haves

• Bachelors degree in Journalism.
• Experience using digital audio recording and editing equipment
• Community engagement experience
• Experience in multimedia journalism, including digital news video
• Bilingual in English and another language, preferably one spoken in communities in the Pacific Northwest (for example, Spanish, Mandarin, Cantonese, Vietnamese, and Russian).
• An eye for diverse voices and sources in stories
• Photography or video production skills

Responsibilities

• Reports, writes and produces breaking and enterprise news stories on multiple platforms, including audio and digital and possibly video. Other duties include scheduling and conducting interviews and planning future news coverage related to the weekend beat, recording and editing material using digital audio tools, using social media for information gathering and engagement, and taking photos. This position, along with all reporters, will use OPB’s content and media asset management systems as required for collaboration across the department.
• Produce interviews for hosts on radio broadcast shows Morning Edition, All Things Considered or Weekend Edition. This would require finding and lining up guests, writing scripts, and producing digital stories out of the conversations.
• Plan for weekend coverage alongside the Weekend Editor in Midweek news meeting. Research and pitch stories that could yield strong weekend dailies in the absence of breaking news. Proactively plan for up to 2 weeks ahead.
• Participate in local news programming by appearing as a guest on shows like Morning Edition, “Think Out Loud®” and All Things Considered and podcasts such as “OPB Politics Now,” doing stand-ups for vertical news video, or being debriefed by an on-air host. Support efforts to include other local voices in OPB’s on-air programming.

What This Job Offers

• Job Type: Full-time
• Career Level: Entry Level