Food Reporter

This is a Full Time Job

Chron is seeking a food writer with sharp reporting skills and familiarity working for a digital-first newsroom. The ideal candidate will enjoy having a collaborative working relationship with the rest of the newsroom to ideate and execute stories for the Food & Drink vertical and, most importantly, knows how to find and tell a good story across platforms, including site, social, and video. The food reporter will chase and write stories that highlight Texas' and the greater Houston area's diverse, vibrant food scene and dig up unique angles that haven't been explored yet. Knowledge of Texas and curiosity about food a big plus but not required. The reporter will have a collaborative working relationship with the food editor to ideate and execute stories.

Primary responsibilities:
• Write features, daily news stories, and service-minded pieces and news about Houston's food and drink scene
• Pitch and develop stories and projects to editors
• Make photo requests from restaurants, bars and other food businesses
• Work with the food editor to follow an editorial calendar
• Occasionally attend events and media previews of restaurant openings

Requirements:
• At least 2 years of professional journalism experience required
• Excellent news judgment and feature writing skills
• Excellent reporting, researching and interviewing skills
• Either experience or a strong interest in food and drink
• Strong copy-editing skills and knowledge of AP Style
• Familiarity with the needs of the Houston and Texas audience
• Familiarity with content management systems and metric tools

Preferred skills:
• Knowledge of Houston restaurants, bars and other food and drink businesses
• Experience using Chartbeat, Google Analytics, Looker, or other analytics tools
• Experience working in a CMS and publishing to digital platforms

What are the measures of success for this position?
• Meeting deadlines and keeping pace with publishing schedule while improving quality of work overtime
• Overall traffic performance of original stories in aims of meeting daily and monthly goals
• Mentions, links, shares, and pickups of stories from prominent third-party publications
• Reader shares and other engagement with stories on social media platforms
• Overall increase of unique in-DMA visitors
• Overall increase of loyal in-DMA visitors

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