Climate, Environment & Water Reporter

Arizona State University; Santa Barbara (CA); On-site; USD 39,000 - 47,000; Full time

Benefits offered by this job

Medical, dental, and vision insurance

401(k) plan with matching

22 days of vacation time

11 holidays, including your birthday

Parental leave

Tuition reductions

Professional development opportunities

$30 bi-weekly cell phone reimbursement

Job summary

The Santa Barbara News-Press is seeking a Climate, Environment & Water Reporter to join our newsroom on the Central Coast. You will cover environmental topics across Santa Barbara County, delivering explanatory and accountability journalism with multimedia storytelling.

This role requires a journalist with at least three years on environmental beats, skilled in data analysis and short-form vertical video, and capable of sourcing across local organizations and government entities.

Qualifications

• A degree in journalism or college-level journalism coursework.
• A minimum of three years of professional reporting experience in an environmental or related beat.
• Excellent reporting and writing skills.
• Proficiency in understanding, analyzing, and presenting data in an understandable way.
• Experience and comfort publishing stories in short-form vertical video format.

Responsibilities

• Report and write daily and enterprise stories across environmental topics.
• Develop and report original stories through on-the-ground reporting.
• Write clear, accurate, well-structured stories on deadline.
• File breaking news quickly while maintaining accuracy and fairness.
• Follow stories beyond the news cycle for in-depth coverage.
• Develop long-form, investigative and explanatory features.
• Work across formats and with editors to adapt reporting for platforms.
• Present at in-person News-Press events focusing on environmental topics.

Skills

Environmental reporting

Data journalism

Interviewing & sourcing

Video storytelling

Spanish language (preferred)

Education

Bachelor's degree in journalism

Job description

Climate, Environment & Water Reporter, Newswell You will join the Santa Barbara News-Press as a dedicated beat reporter, covering topics of environment, climate and water across Santa Barbara County and the Central Coast. Your reporting will focus on explanatory and accountability journalism, presenting complex topics in a straightforward, accessible style for multimedia audiences. At the Santa Barbara News-Press, you’ll be part of a growing start-up newsroom rebuilding local journalism with urgency, credibility and relevance. You’ll cover a wide range of stories across Santa Barbara County contributing original reporting that helps readers understand what’s happening — and why it matters. This is a role for an experienced journalist with expertise in topics of environment, climate, water policy and related subject areas. You should be comfortable covering issues as diverse as land use, coastal conservation, ecosystem health, agriculture, energy infrastructure, natural disaster, public health, environmental justice and community resiliency. To do this, you must have strong source development across relevant local organizations, industries and government entities, and be able to report on issues in a fact‑based manner. You should have familiarity with government information request processes. In this role you will pursue breaking news, enterprise reporting, narrative features, data journalism, investigations and shoot short-form vertical video for social-first stories. You’ll spend a significant portion of your time out in the community, on the street and in the field, talking to people. The pay scale for this position ranges from $28.00 - $34.00/hour.

What you’ll own

• Daily and weekly beat stories
• Community profiles, breaking news and developing stories
• Features, data journalism, and investigations

What you’ll do

• Report and write
• Develop and report original stories through on-the-ground reporting
• Write clear, accurate, well-structured stories on deadline
• File breaking news quickly while maintaining accuracy and fairness
• Follow stories beyond the news cycle for in-depth "day two" coverage
• Develop long-form, investigative and explanatory features
• Work across formats
• Contribute through written text and photos
• Shoot short-form video for publishing across multiple platforms
• Work with editors and colleagues to adapt reporting for different platforms
• Present at periodic in-person News-Press events focusing on environmental topics
• Collaborate in a modern newsroom
• Work closely with editors, fellow reporters and visual journalists
• Participate in story meetings and contribute ideas
• Be open to feedback and committed to continuous improvement
• Occasionally cover general assignment stories or breaking news as needed

Relevant qualifications

• A degree in journalism or college-level journalism coursework
• A minimum of three years of professional reporting experience in an environmental or related beat.
• Excellent reporting and writing skills
• Proficiency in understanding, analyzing, and presenting data in an understandable way.
• Experience and comfort publishing stories in short-form vertical video format

Preferred skills and abilities

• A minimum of five years professional reporting experience and/or academic background in environmental topics.
• Familiarity with digital publishing workflows.
• Spanish language speaking and writing skills.
• Preference for someone living in the Santa Barbara area.

Why this role matters

You will be a core member of a growing team working to transform the 158-year-old Santa Barbara News-Press into an innovative digital-first local news outlet. This role exists to provide strong foundational reporting on the most important news of Santa Barbara County and the Central Coast via timely, fact-based storytelling that resonates with our local community. You are here to build the news and information infrastructure for a people and a place.

Benefits

• Comprehensive benefits package, including medical, dental, and vision insurance
• 401(k) plan with matching employer contribution
• 22 days of vacation time
• 11 holidays, including your birthday
• Parental leave
• Significant tuition reductions
• Professional development is highly valued at ASU Enterprise Partners, where employees are encouraged to look across the organization and nurture new areas of interest
• $30 bi-weekly cell phone reimbursement

NEWSWELL is an Equal Opportunity Employer

WHO WE ARE

NEWSWELL TRANSFORMS LOCAL NEWS TO HELP COMMUNITIES AND DEMOCRACY THRIVE

NEWSWELL, a nonprofit based at Arizona State University, provides back-end operations and business strategies to help news sites become or remain sustainable. Local journalists report the news. NEWSWELL offers the support. We don't just want to sustain local news, we want to transform it. We'll work with researchers, faculty and students across America's most innovative university to solve journalism's biggest problems. We partner with the renowned Walter Cronkite School of Journalism and Mass Communication at ASU to provide learning opportunities for students as well as professional development and a talent pipeline for our newsrooms.

LOCAL NEWS STAYS LOCAL, WE OFFER SUPPORT AND STRATEGY NEWSWELL is growing a network of nonprofit newsrooms dedicated to their communities, made up of local journalists and supported by local community advisory boards. We offer shared services, innovative tools and diversified revenue strategies to help local news thrive. As we assist newsrooms, we do it with the community, listening, learning and offering ways to get involved. Each newsroom is for and of the community it serves, the entire community.

WE ARE NONPROFIT AND FOR COMMUNITY We are working with three local news sites as prototypes of our transformation process: SANTA BARBARA NEWS-PRESS STOCKTONIA TIMES OF SAN DIEGO To learn more visit asunewswell.org.

Questions, Comments and Inquiries: Email: [e-mail]