Investigative Reporter

Hearst Communications, Inc.; Houston (TX); Hybrid; USD 70,000 - 110,000; Full time

Job summary

Houston Chronicle is seeking an investigative reporter to join its award-winning investigations team, the largest in Texas. Lead accountability-driven coverage, mold your beat, and collaborate newsroom-wide to deliver high-impact reporting across platforms.

You will work under the Senior Director of Investigations on nationally recognized work, including data-driven stories and engaging video components, with a strong emphasis on public records and state/local issues in Texas.

Qualifications

• Five+ years producing original accountability stories with impact.
• Strong familiarity with Texas politics, government and institutions.
• Thrives in fast-paced, collaborative newsroom environments.
• Experienced in data journalism and filing public records requests (local/state/federal).
• Able to reach audiences across platforms with varied formats, including video.

Responsibilities

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

Skills

Accountability reporting

Texas knowledge

Collaboration

Data journalism

Public records requests

Multimedia storytelling

Data visualization

Job description

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’s 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.

About the Houston Chronicle:

The Houston Chronicle, recognized for its Pulitzer Prize-winning journalism, serves its 2.3 million residents with content and marketing solutions across two of Houston’s largest websites — HoustonChronicle.com and Chron.com , along with our magazine, television and newspaper brands. Our mission is to spark conversations that inspire action to create a better Houston. All our content and the innovative business solutions we provide invite Houstonians to join conversations about a community we’ve been committed to covering and helping prosper for more than 120 years. The community we all call home.

About Hearst Newspapers:

With 2,500 employees across the nation, HNP encompasses a network of 24 daily and 52 weekly publications, including the San Francisco Chronicle, Houston Chronicle, San Antonio Express-News and Albany Times Union, several top digital-only news and lifestyle sites, marketing services businesses, and entertainment businesses such as King Features Syndicate.

At HNP, we are investing in new and innovative ways to tell stories – growing newsrooms, diversifying tools, evolving platforms – to support the millions of people who trust us each month to help them make decisions, take action and be inspired.

Be a part of something bigger – your headline awaits.

Recognizing the diverse needs of our candidates, if you are interested in applying for employment and need assistance or an accommodation to use our website or regarding the application process, please contact us by email at [e-mail]. Please do not use this email address to inquire about the status of applications. We will only respond to inquiries concerning requests for a reasonable accommodation through this email address.

#LI-KR1#LI-Hybrid