Job Description

Summary/Objective

We’re looking to make a critical addition to our talented local news and enterprise team at the Mercury News.

This reporter will cover San Jose, the Bay Area’s largest city. You’ll handle a torrent of breaking news in the fascinating, diverse heart of Silicon Valley – from crime and housing to politics and the impact of coronavirus . The ideal San Jose beat reporter thrives in a fast-paced environment, and has the energy to jump from one hot story to the next in an intensely competitive news environment. You should be able to work both alone and collaboratively with a rotating cast of reporters and editors.

Essential Functions

The reporter in this job will provide primary coverage for The Mercury News print and online local reports. What happens in San Jose, whether it’s Google’s plans for a huge campus that would reshape downtown or a first in the nation requirement that gun owners carry liability insurance – resonates across the country. Our news organization has the ambition and ability to tell the story of San Jose and the region with the impact it warrants.

You will work in real time, publishing words, sounds and images individually and in collaboration with colleagues. We serve a savvy, sophisticated audience that includes millions of online readers and hundreds of thousands of people who read our printed newspapers.

Competencies & Skills

If you’re the ideal candidate you’ll have most of these qualities:

• Excellent news judgment and a drive to compete

• Demonstrated ability to write sharp, clean copy that draws readers in, including nut graphs and online headlines

• The skill to mine human sources, documents and data, including a facility for mining public records

• The ability to juggle multiple stories of varying complexity, from quick news posts under intense deadline pressure to daily news stories and longer-term enterprise or features

• Proficiency at using the web and social media to report stories and to share them

• At least four years experience as a working journalist, preferably including at least some coverage of politics, breaking news, business and labor.

In our diverse region, facility with multiple languages is a plus.

Required Education

• 4-year college degree (journalism or related fields)

Required Experience

• Four years prior experience

Work Environment

• This job operates in a professional office environment and at the Company and client sites for business meetings and presentations. This role routinely uses standard office equipment such as computers, phones, photocopiers, filing cabinets and fax machines.

• This position may be a permanent remote role.

Physical Demands

• The physical demands described here are representative of those that must be met by an employee to successfully perform the essential functions of this job. While performing the duties of this job, the employee is regularly required to talk and hear. The employee frequently is required to stand; walk; use hands to finger, handle or feel; and reach with hands and arms and requires the ability to occasionally lift office products and supplies up to 30 pounds.

Other Duties

This job description is not designed to cover or contain a comprehensive listing of activities, duties or responsibilities that are required of the employee for this job. Duties, responsibilities and activities may change at any time with or without notice.

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