Posted On: February 12, 2020

Journalism Job

Media Organization: Futurism.com

Company Description

Acquired by SU in early 2019, Futurism is a digital media publication that covers the breakthrough technologies and scientific discoveries that will shape humanity’s future. Our mission is to empower our readers and drive the development of these transformative technologies towards maximizing human potential. Futurism reaches over ten million unique readers and garners over 50MM views on Facebook per month, making it one of the largest future-focused global digital science and technology publishers, full stop.

Job Description

The Staff Writer will support the News Editor in the daily run-of-show for Futurism’s news writing and reporting operation, filing news digests contextualizing the latest in emerging technology and science, in addition to reporting original stories.

Futurism Media is looking to hire a Staff Writer for Futurism.com to work out of our Brooklyn office.

A Staff Writer at Futurism.com will:

Report directly to the Managing Editor of Futurism.com, as they pitch and write anywhere from five to seven short, razor-sharp news hits a day, giving our readers the succinct summaries, context, and takeaways on offer at The Byte.
Staff writers will also contribute reported medium-length stories and features, in addition to special projects, source development, and beat reporting.

The Byte, which will be the primary charge of our new hire, is a relevant, useful, sharp, smart, funny, and crucial daily must-read for the leaders of tomorrow, today. Here’s what we’re looking for when hiring writers for it, in order of priority:

Writing chops. While it’d help if you have a background or understanding of writing about technology and science, as well as ideas concerning the future of the world, it’s not crucial. The important thing, first and foremost, is that you have a passion for writing and can string together fun, sharp, concise, informative, exciting copy — and that you can do it quickly, without preciousness. Literary journal aspirants or chronic dissertation writers need not apply. Same goes to anyone married to any kind of static, universal style guide. If your writing reads well, we want it, and we don’t care if it comes to us from a high school sports desk or the steerage deck at an ad agency.

Competitiveness and work ethic. We’re a small media operation and we keep things trim. We ask of our writers the ability to work hard, work smart, and the desire to be entrepreneurial about their work. We need someone we can trust to get the job done, to learn from mistakes quickly in order to get us where we’re going.

Editing chops. If you’re already a halfway decent writer, you’re probably also gonna instinctually understand how to make other people’s writing better (or at the very least, help them deliver clean, concise copy). This is less about any practical editing experience than it is an ability to deal with other people’s work — to take things from good to great, and to communicate with writers in a constructive, respectful, and ultimately meaningful way that helps them get that much closer to achieving the highest level of quality they can reach.

News instincts and strong ideas. Again, you don’t have to be a science or technology expert, but you need to have some interest in topics like AI, quantum computing, medtech, universal basic income, blockchain, transportation, urbanization, green energy initiatives, and wonderfully rich characters like Elon Musk and Jeff Bezos (as well as a sense of who’s missing from conversations about science and technology). If this stuff makes your eyes gloss over, sorry, this isn’t for you — but if you’re fascinated by the rough edges as those things make their way into everyday life, you could be a terrific fit. And needless to say, if you already have an intense passion for these subjects, and strong ideas about them, we’re definitely looking for you.

To Apply

Candidates of all backgrounds are encouraged to apply. And if you think you’ve got what it takes, here’s what we’d like from you,::

A cover letter and a resume. We know, it’s standard and basic. But we want a quick, clean snapshot of who you are and what you’ve got to say.
A few writing samples, linked in your cover letter. They can be literally anything — we just want you to show us you, at the best of your abilities.

Link to application: https://singularityuniversity.applytojob.com/apply/PBKIlTxMGS/Staff-Writer-Futurism