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The Wall Street Journal · 1 day ago

Books Reporter

New York, NY

Full-time

Onsite

Mid, Senior Level

$120K/yr - $150K/yr

4+ years exp

The Wall Street Journal is seeking a Books Reporter for its Weekend & WSJ. Magazine team to cover consumer-facing book and literary-world features. The role involves writing engaging stories about authors, books, and literary trends while collaborating with other teams to develop compelling features.

FinanceFinancial ServicesInternet

Responsibilities

Report, write and fact-check an average of four stories each month about books, literary trends, authors and the key players in the book world

Burst with highly shareable, witty, adrenalized story ideas with clearly understood news value and elegant, thoughtful execution

Bring a well-developed roster of industry contacts and knowledge of key figures and sources to help garner scoops, identify trends, and develop features

Easily modulate between tough, detail-driven enterprise stories as well as whimsical, frisky features that mine for joy and humor. Embody the Weekend and WSJ. Magazine mission to simultaneously inform and entertain

Work collaboratively and egolessly with others—both with senior feature storytellers, with our enterprise and business teams, and with our fellow Media bureau focused on the corporate business-side stories currently reshaping books

Uncover stories no one else is chasing and develop them into juicy features and engaging reads. Amplify traditional profiles of authors, fan trends or literary trends with humanizing detail and great eye for shareable, well-crafted narrative that show potential for long-form WSJ. Magazine inclusion as features or as Weekend cover stories

Embrace audience data, learning or continuing to fuse metrics with great taste and imaginative ideas

Ensure the voice, tone and standards of The Wall Street Journal are consistently met; that stories are accurate, fair, objective and of impeccable quality. Scrupulously uphold newsroom policies and procedures around ethics and conduct

Qualification

Feature storytellingExceptional writing skillsReporting skillsIndustry contactsDigital audience engagementVisual thinkingEntrepreneurial spiritCollaborative attitudeAttention to detailSense of humor

Required

Unputdownable clips and exceptional writing and reporting skills

4 to 8 years experience covering a relevant beat, including news, reported feature stories, and well-developed enterprise or long-form feature storytelling

A proven history of finding unexpected takes on fast-moving news events, as well as an eye for book-world stories that appeal to a general audience

A sense of humor, including a proven history of finding clever, intelligent ways into stories that are being widely covered

A demonstrated meticulous approach to getting facts and details exactly right, minimizing corrections and bulletproofing stories with close attention to detail

A sharp sense of how to connect with digital audiences

Visual thinking and a vested interest in how your stories will look and present across platforms

A collaborative, team-player attitude, an upbeat outlook and an entrepreneurial spirit as we grow and evolve coverage needs