Public Safety Journalist

The Baltimore Sun, an award-winning news organization, is seeking passionate Public Safety Journalists to join our editorial team, with open positions covering both Baltimore City and Baltimore County.

As a Public Safety Journalist, you’ll cover law enforcement, emergency services, criminal justice, and related issues within your respective regions. The ideal candidate will have strong investigative and writing skills, a passion for uncovering stories that impact the public, and a commitment to delivering accurate, timely, and comprehensive coverage.

Essential Functions

• Cover breaking news stories related to public safety, including incidents involving law enforcement, fire departments, emergency medical services, accidents, natural disasters, and other significant events impacting public safety.
• Conduct in-depth investigations into public safety issues, including crime trends, legal reforms, police practices, and other systemic issues. Build and maintain relationships with sources such as law enforcement, government officials, and community organizations to uncover important stories.
• Attend local criminal and civil court proceedings to report on cases of interest, including trials, sentencing, and significant legal decisions.
• Analyze public safety data, such as crime statistics and police reports, to identify patterns and inform reporting. Work with the editorial team to develop data-driven stories.
• Strive to provide readers with what we know, when we know it. Be transparent about sources of information.
• Develop stories, produce or secure visuals, get sources to cooperate, corroborate facts, and present information to readers in the most relevant, interesting way.
• Maximizing audience engagement through the use of various storytelling formats, including photo galleries, video, aggregation, and a variety of layouts.
• Taking the initiative to fact-check, run background checks, and confirm information before publication.
• Delivering on time with minimal to moderate supervision and editing.
• Uncovering and proposing exclusive stories on newsworthy events and trends.
• Contributing story ideas several times a week, including identifying and following trends outside assigned beat or topic areas, and informing supervisors of possible story ideas arising from trends.
• Measuring the performance of one’s own digital content through audience engagement metrics and working with the audience team to develop tactics and strategies to build an audience.
• Working with data and visuals teams, as appropriate, to deepen reporting and produce data-visualization content items.
• Participating in production videos and live streaming with the visuals department, as appropriate

Competencies & Skills

• Professional-level grasp of proper grammar, spelling, and punctuation.
• Ability to write accurately, with clarity, and without bias.
• Knowledge of libel laws and adherence to the Editorial’s codes of ethics.
• Strong work ethic and entrepreneurial spirit.
• Ability to multitask and perform in a fast-paced deadline-driven environment.
• Ability to work independently when required while at the same time operating efficiently in a team dynamic.
• Up-to-date skills on various digital platforms.
• Familiarity with current events and newsmakers.
• Basic familiarity with analytics and ability to translate data into tactics and strategies, including the ability to use metrics from Chartbeat, Adobe Analytics, social, and other tools.
• Knowledge of Facebook, Twitter, and other social platforms and ability to develop/follow best practices for social.
• Basic knowledge of SEO best practices and ability to research SEO and appropriately populate fields and headlines.

Education and Experience Requirements:

• Bachelor's Degree or equivalent experience required
• A minimum of 3 years of professional reporting experience (news publication and/or daily or weekly journalism experience strongly preferred)
• Must be able and willing to work irregular hours and holidays as necessary
• Valid driver's license and reliable transportation required
• Must be familiar with computers and software, including Internet software
• Excellent command of verbal and written English

Salary Range: $50,000 - $80,000
Individual compensation may vary from the target range based on several factors such as experience, internal pay equity, and other relevant business considerations.

Application Submission:
Please include a cover letter and résumé. In your cover letter, please highlight three different types of stories you have worked on along with a brief description of your roles.
Please upload samples of your previous reporting/editing work, such as news articles, feature stories, or investigative reports, that demonstrate your ability to cover/edit stories clearly, accurately, and with compelling detail.

The Baltimore Sun is committed to building a diverse newsroom that reflects the people it covers and the audience it serves. Candidates are encouraged to highlight new perspectives they can bring to our team.