Investigative Impact Producer

NEWSWELL at Arizona State University; Sacramento (CA); On-site; USD 70,000 - 80,000; Full time

Benefits offered by this job

Medical, dental, and vision insurance

401(k) plan with company match

22 days of vacation time

11 holidays, including birthday

Parental leave

Tuition reductions

Professional development opportunities

Cell phone reimbursement

Job summary

NEWSWELL, in partnership with Arizona State University, seeks an Investigative Impact Producer to lead statewide accountability journalism and strengthen audience connections. You’ll help identify impact opportunities, guide processes, and build public-facing documentation of effects.

This role takes journalism to the people, collaborating with regional teams, promoting the work, and mentoring local newsrooms while piloting innovative tools and events to deepen public engagement.

Qualifications

• Storytelling and project management across multi‑month investigations.
• SEO‑aware writing and audience collaboration to maximize reach.
• Fairness, accuracy, and inclusive journalism practices.

Responsibilities

• Support and amplify the process of conceiving, developing and producing investigative reporting.
• Create systems to deliver exclusive findings and measure civic impact.
• Mentor and coach local newsrooms and collaborate across the network.
• Integrate solutions journalism and audience interaction into investigative workflows.
• Collaborate with reporters and editors to present stories to broad audiences.
• Use multiple digital publishing formats when appropriate.
• Support community forums and partner events; engage readers and stakeholders.
• Pilot new tools, including responsible AI, to improve research and workflow.
• Partner with ASU’s Walter Cronkite School for student engagement and newsroom collaboration.
• Contribute to an inclusive newsroom culture focused on transparency and community impact.

Skills

Storytelling excellence

Digital fluency

Risk awareness

Teamwork

AP style proficiency

Education

Bachelor’s or Master’s degree in journalism or related field

Five years of journalism experience

Familiarity with accountability/investigative work

Experience identifying impact and engaging audiences

Cross‑platform reach experience

Job description

Investigative Impact Producer

An audience producer at NEWSWELL will help a new statewide investigative team maximize the reach and impact of our most significant journalism. This producer will help identify opportunities for impact, guide the processes to get there and build internal tracking and public-facing documentation about the effects of our work. This role will also help us promote and publicize the work itself.

In short, this job takes the journalism to the people.

This producer should come with a journalism background that may include reporting, editing or multimedia work, and should bring a deep familiarity with the ideas of impact and cross‑platform outreach. More importantly, this staffer will bring fresh ideas about how our unique regional or statewide reporting can be of service to our local audiences.

This producer will collaborate with the team’s senior statewide reporter, other team members and NEWSWELL’s local newsrooms, and should bring the sensibility of an innovator, teacher and collaborator to the role.

The role may involve a variety of content creation and audience interaction work, such as:

• Adding ideas for impact or suggesting additional reporting that could fuel impact
• Writing stories directly related at solutions or outcomes from our reporting
• Creating or managing graphics, databases, printed materials or other items that help connect audiences with our work
• Seeking out stakeholders or potential new audiences and conducting outreach to connect them with our work
• Brainstorming, organizing and executing community events, speaker forums, demonstrations or other public events

The role is part of a new standalone investigative team that serves the Western newsrooms in NEWSWELL’s nonprofit collective.

Every piece of our team’s work will focus on two equal priorities: impact and audience connection. This role lives at the intersection of both:

IMPACT: All our efforts should pursue righting a wrong and demonstrating the power of journalism to improve public life.

AUDIENCE CONNECTION: Everything we publish should also be in pursuit of strengthening audience ties to our newsroom, through two‑way dialogue, public events, uses of new platforms or other methods to demonstrate public outreach.

NEWSWELL helps newsrooms become nonprofit and for‑community, providing strategic guidance, innovative solutions and operational support so journalists can focus on what matters most: serving their communities. Through partnerships with Arizona State University — named the nation’s most innovative university for 11 years in a row — NEWSWELL brings cutting‑edge ideas, research and tools to reinvent local news and strengthen democracy.

Our innovative model has earned us support from journalistic and philanthropic organizations nationwide. This new team’s work is designed to leverage and grow that support, so that we can grow and transform local journalism.

This role pays $70,000-$80,000 annually.

What you’ll do

• Support and amplify the process of conceiving, developing and producing investigative and accountability reporting.
• Build systems to help deliver exclusive findings and measure or track civic impact.
• Mentor and coach local newsrooms and collaborate on local reporting.
• Integrate solutions journalism, audience interaction and other innovative techniques into the investigative workflow.
• Collaborate with reporters and editors to present stories to a broad range of audiences.
• Use multiple digital publishing formats when appropriate.
• Support and help lead community forums and partner events; engage transparently with readers and stakeholders.
• Pilot new tools, including responsible AI, to enhance research, document analysis and workflow efficiency.
• Partner with ASU’s Walter Cronkite School and other academic institutions to create strong student engagement opportunities, including reporting, learning experiences and newsroom collaboration.
• Contribute to an inclusive, collaborative newsroom culture that values transparency, fairness, equity and community impact.

What you’ll need

• Storytelling excellence: ability to distill complex information; strong organization and project management across multi‑month investigations and faster accountability hits.
• Digital fluency: SEO‑aware writing, smart packaging, social and audience collaboration to maximize reach and comprehension.
• Risk awareness: awareness of legal, safety and trauma‑informed practices, or intense focus on learning.
• Teamwork: strong sense of collaboration with fellow reporters and other staffers.
• Proficiency in Associated Press style; commitment to fairness, accuracy, inclusion and community‑centered journalism.

Relevant qualifications

• Bachelor’s or master’s degree in journalism or related field, or equivalent combination of education and experience.
• Five years of journalism experience.
• Familiarity with accountability or investigative work, or an intense focus on learning.
• Demonstrable experience in identifying journalism impact, connecting journalistic work with new audiences or engaging with audiences in new ways.
• Deep familiarity with how to reach people across platforms – web, social, direct outreach, nontraditional forms.

Preferred education and experience

• Experience in visual production, shooting or producing your own images, video, social media content or work on other platforms beyond written stories.
• Experience reporting, editing or producing in California and the West.
• Experience with cross‑newsroom or regional accountability collaborations.

Preferred skills and abilities

• On‑camera experience or video production.
• Events planning and management.

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