WFYI Public Media Job Description

WFYI is an equal opportunity, affirmative action employer and is now accepting applications for:

Job Title: Education Reporter - Investigative

Classification: Full-time (three-year grant funded position)

Salary: Commensurate with experience

Position:  WFYI Public Media is looking for an experienced investigative journalist to cover public education in Indianapolis and across Indiana by revealing injustices to bring about change and inform the public. 

All WFYI journalism initiatives investigate the intersections of people and policy. You will be part of a new six-person education team focused on systemic inequities in public education and the approaches to addressing them.  

Your work will include long-term projects and features to examine a range of potential issues,  such as special education, response to the pandemic, government agencies, and student mental health. You will also contribute quick-turnaround watchdog reports on emerging issues. 

The focus on K-12 education will provide vast opportunities to make state and national impact through digital and audio reports. You should feel comfortable with data-driven reporting, filing FOIA requests and shoe-leather reporting to seek out powerful and untold stories. Your expertise and curiosity will be a driving factor in the coverage.

WFYI is Central Indiana’s leading non-commercial media outlet and its NPR and PBS station. It has founded, supported and worked with award-winning local, statewide, regional and national journalism and audience engagement initiatives. You will work with 35 reporters, editors and engagement specialists, including WFYI’s health journalism initiative Side Effects Public Media and the statewide collaboration Indiana Public Broadcasting.

Major Responsibilities:

• Value, contribute to and sustain WFYI’s commitment to a culture of belonging that sees our culture’s history of power and privilege and seeks to balance that with the inclusion of many diverse experiences and perspectives.

• Digital storytelling that uses clear, concise writing to inform our audience why a story is important to them.

• Collaborate with education team members  to produce sound-rich, narrative audio reports and digital presentations for WFYI.org and social media. 

• Partner and coordinate with Indiana Public Broadcasting’s education policy reporter on coverage and multi-platform projects. 

• Daily coverage for broadcast and online if there’s a development in an issue you are actively covering. 

• Cultivate expertise and sources in education policy and issues to identify and pitch investigative and enterprise stories. 

• Integrate audience interaction with reporting by working with the education team’s community engagement specialist. 

• Schedule flexibility (some evening, weekend and holiday work). 

Qualifications:

• Good natured, ambitious and ready to build a new education journalism initiative.

• A minimum of five years of reporting experience, including a track record of investigative reporting.

• Experience with computer-assisted reporting preferred.

• Familiarity with NPR and other public media journalism. 

• Excellent communication skills and ability to manage multiple projects simultaneously and work under deadline pressure. 

• Multi-platform experience including writing and AP Style, shooting video, taking photos, posting to social media and on content management systems.