Posted On: March 11, 2015

Contributor

Media Organization: Straus Media Manhattan

Company Description

Straus publishes three weeklies in Manhattan: Our Town, the West Side Spirit and Our Town Downtown (and their corresponding websites) report on the Upper East Side, Upper West Side and downtown, respectively.

Job Description

We’re looking for a freelancer or freelancers to do some cops/crime reporting, primarily police blotters for the three editions but also some reporting.

One aspect would entail courting police in precincts on the UES, UWS and the west side of downtown and filing weekly copy of between 300 and 500 words for each of the three papers. The pay is $40 for each set, for a total of $120. Here's a prototype, but of a kind we'd like to ameliorate: http://www.westsidespirit.com/crime-watch/20150216/crime-watch/3

We're also looking for this reporter or reporters to do additional legwork on the stand-out blotter items – for instance, on a notable or unusual/odd caper, or on a neighborhood crime trend – that merit it. Ideally, he or she would write one, two or even three of those stories a week. Those would pay $50 each.
The precincts we need covered:
On the Upper West Side: the 20th Precinct, on West 82nd Street; and the 24th Precinct, on West 100th Street.

On the Upper East Side: 23rd Precinct, on East 102nd; and the 19th precinct, on East 67th Street.
And downtown: The First Precinct, at Varick and Beach Streets; the Sixth Precinct, on West 10th Street; and the 10th Precinct, on West 20th Street.

To Apply

Email note expressing interest, along with resume to Richard Khavkine (editor.dt@strausnews.com). Questions about the post are also welcome.