Correspondent – Climate & Environment
Santa Cruz County is located between the mountains, the Pacific Ocean and the Pacific Ocean. It is both the beneficiary, the steward, and sometimes the victim of a wide variety of environmental issues. The Environment and Climate Correspondent not only keeps track of each of these, but also anticipates what’s next and what could work better (or go sour if it isnt).
This position, like all correspondents, has overlapped with the others, but likely significantly more than his/her/their co-workers. Although rebuilding after the CZU fire had a strong housing component, there is strong evidence that it is also an environment issue. Although questions regarding homelessness policies can be seen as a housing and political issue, they can also be viewed through an environmental lens.
The correspondent must be aware of environmental issues that may arise from the work of his/her colleagues, in addition to covering and anticipating news about Santa Cruz County’s physical geography and human impact on it. They will often be called upon to provide an environmental context to a business, political, or education issue.
We are a small staff so correspondents are often called upon to cover breaking news, court hearings, and meetings that may or not be on their radar. Although it is a small percentage of the overall workload, editors try to keep it at a minimum.
All this being said, the tentpoles for the climate and environmental correspondent are:
- Explaining the work done by scientists and researchers who are focused on local environmental issues
- Examining the effects of Santa Cruz County farming and fishing and exploring the tensions that exist between economic viability, environmental stewardship, and both.
- The Rail/Trail controversy is a case study of the effects of transportation and transit on the land and people who live there.
- Environmental issues can have a negative impact on health (asthma and other respiratory issues). Public records can be used to investigate inequitable policies.
- Keep an eye out for places like Santa Cruz that have solved, or made progress towards addressing seemingly impossible problems
- Profiles of people doing interesting things in the environment space for good or for evil
Send a cover letter and resume to this address if you feel like this is the right fit. [email protected]Contact [email protected] for more information.
- Your expertise in producing multimedia journalism.
- How to approach this beat and why it interests you.
- Your knowledge of the area, or, if you are not local, how would you educate yourself.
Correspondents work full-time. We offer competitive salaries and benefits. We are looking for community leaders and the position is only available in-person. Remote work is not considered.
Skills and experience:
- Solid journalism judgment, intuition, and taste.
- Minimum of two years’ professional (post-college) experience
- You will feel comfortable and have more experience with digital-first journalism and the digital technologies that support it.
- Ability to engage diverse local communities in Lookouts Work
- Ability to use visuals to aid storytelling and collaborate with colleagues to activate them.
- Demonstrated adaptability, particularly with new topical coverage and communities.
- Experience in using content management systems to produce, edit, and dress stories with related media (photos and videos, etc.)
- Comfort with the format of Lookouts correspondent-focused model, and the personality it brings to the work.
- You want to work in an entrepreneurial, high-growth startup environment.
- Bilingual skills are a plus.
- Skills in data reporting are a plus.
- Experience with audio/video is a plus.
Benefits and Application
The Government and Politics correspondent is a full-time Lookout Local employee. We offer competitive employee benefits.
Lookout Local is an equal opportunities employer. All qualified applicants will be considered without regard to race or color, religion, sexual orientation, gender identity and national origin.
We interact with the public regularly so a vaccination against COVID-19 must be obtained for employment, except where there is a documented disability or religious reason.
Please submit your application with a cover letter and resume [email protected].
