Investigative Reporter

Hearst; Houston (TX); On-site; USD 75,000 - 110,000; Full time

Job summary

Houston Chronicle is seeking an investigative reporter to join our award-winning investigations team in Houston. This role offers the chance to shape a beat and collaborate across our newsroom, recognized as Texas’ best for investigative work.

The candidate should have at least five years producing accountability stories, strong data skills, and experience with public records requests. You will craft stories for multiple platforms and produce compelling visual content.

Qualifications

• Has at least five years producing original accountability stories.
• Strong familiarity with Texas and its politics, laws and institutions.
• Writes with clarity, accuracy and fairness in a fast-paced newsroom.
• Experienced with data and public records requests at multiple levels.
• Ability to find audiences for work across platforms and formats.
• Experience scripting and producing video to accompany investigations.
• Can build data visualizations and databases to illuminate complex stories.

Responsibilities

• Pitches, reports and produces coverage that drives conversation and impacts decisions.
• Owns all reporting, impact and updates around key investigative storylines.
• Collaborates with reporters, editors, visual journalists and audience teams to elevate accountability reporting.
• Works with visual, audience and data colleagues to present investigations in engaging formats.

Skills

Accountability reporting

Data journalism

Public records requests

Audience development

Video scripting

Tools

Data visualization

Job description

Investigative Reporter

The Houston Chronicle is looking to hire an investigative reporter to join our award-winning investigations team, the largest team of its kind in Texas. This is a chance for an ambitious accountability-focused journalist to mold their own beat and collaborate widely across a newsroom that has been named the state’s best for seven of the past eight years by the Texas Managing Editors.

Our reporters work in topic areas such as state and local government accountability, suburban growth and development, the oil and gas industry, healthcare, criminal justice and more. Our goal is to serve our readers, answer their burning questions and make a difference with reporting that calls attention to problems, finds answers and tracks solutions.

This new hire will report to the Senior Director of Investigations and be a part of the local investigative reporting team that has been nationally recognized for its impact and scope. Recently, our team’s work was awarded first place by the Online News Association and National Headliner Awards, as well as by SABEW and Best of the West. Our work was also a finalist for the Livingston Awards and semifinalist for the Goldsmith Prize for Investigative Reporting.

Key Responsibilities

• Pitches, reports and produces coverage that drives conversation and impacts the way the region’s power brokers make decisions and exert their influence.
• Owns all of the subsequent reporting, impact and updates around key investigative storylines.
• Collaborates with other reporters, editors, visual journalists and audience colleagues to elevate our accountability and high-impact reporting in ways that engage our core audience and give new audiences a reason to subscribe.
• Works with visual, audience and data colleagues to present investigations in new and engaging formats that go beyond traditional print storytelling.

We’re Looking For Someone Who

• Has at least five years producing original accountability stories that have had a major impact on laws, lives and hearts.
• Has strong familiarity with Texas and moves quickly, identifying opportunities for investigative stories and delving into them with speed, rigor and fairness.
• Will thrive in a fast-paced and collaborative environment, juggling priorities and writing with clarity, care and precision.
• Is well versed in investigative reporting skills, including working with data and filing public records requests at the local, state and federal levels.
• Has demonstrated ability to find audiences for their work on different platforms through a variety of story formats as well as on social media.
• Is experienced with scripting and producing videos to accompany or enhance written investigations.
• Can build data visualizations and databases to bring complex stories to life.

Success is measured by

• Produces exclusive coverage that lands with impact and drives conversation - giving new audiences a reason to convert and keeping our core audience coming back for more.
• Publishes content at a cadence that ensures we are regularly offering exclusive, must-read impact and accountability work to our audience.
• Takes the biggest accountability stories of the day and elevates them into quick-turn investigative stories or seeds them into long-term rolling series.