Newsletter Writer

Posted On: September 14, 2021

Journalism Job

Media Organization: Documented

Company Description

Documented is a nonprofit news organization that produces reporting for and about immigrant New Yorkers. We provide original news stories on the ground-level impact of shifts in labor policy, law–enforcement practices and bureaucratic requirements, and on the effects of new federal directives as well as Q&As and instructional guides that inform New Yorkers about food, health and financial aid and legal issues. We have won awards from the EPPYs, the Online News Association and Local Independent Online News Publishers. Our work has been mentioned by The New York Times, The Washington Post, in federal lawsuits, at the New York City Council and many other places.

Job Description

Apply for this role here: https://airtable.com/shrXd80tYpua448TC

Deadline to apply: Sep. 30, 2021

The role

For the past three years, Early Arrival has been a steady presence in New York’s immigration community, providing local, national and federal news about the biggest stories of the week. We are expanding on this work and want to re-envision our newsletter taking an audience-based approach to foster dialogue with our readership. You will directly engage with the newsletter audience and research their behavior and needs, through interviews and surveys, to better understand how our newsletter can best serve them. Using this information, you will work with the Documented team to design a new format for Early Arrival, and will begin sending and fine tuning as time goes on, establishing an original voice for the newsletter.

We want the newsletter to be a lively space where our audience learns about new ideas and perspectives on the issues they know well. Your work will include interviews, dissecting news items, and fresh reporting on timely subjects. In addition, the newsletter will continue to host aggregation on immigration news from around the country.

The ideal candidate must be enthusiastic about building and growing close relationships with our audience, which is mainly comprised of immigrants, immigration lawyers, academics, city, state and federal government employees and people generally interested in immigration issues. You must be able to follow the news, research and write quickly and have a good sense of standards around fairness and writing fact-based responses to news. Think of the newsletter as a column where you’ll be able to build a voice as an immigration authority with a highly experienced and knowledgeable audience.

We are dedicated to improving our newsroom, by working with people with backgrounds that reflect the population of New York City. We are committed to diversity and building an inclusive environment for people of all backgrounds and ages. We encourage members of traditionally underrepresented communities to apply, including women, people of color, LGBTQ people and people with disabilities.

Job duties:

Writing Documented’s newsletters (currently 3x per week but this may change)
Reporting
Aggregation
Thoughtful, original writing

Owning newsletters’ vision, strategy and engagement with users.

Collaborating with stakeholders in other departments (development, audience, reporters, business & operations)

Conducting and analyzing user research

Producing reports on newsletter analytics (open rate, list size etc.)

Staying on top of immigration-related news and developments

Staying on top of digital news products, with a focus on email newsletters

Coming up with, designing and executing experiments and tests for newsletters.

Job requirements:

Experience in journalism

Writing experience

Experience or interest in actively building and engaging with newsletter audiences

Experience or interest in utilizing a conversational writing style

User/community-oriented

Deadline and detail-oriented

Preferred qualities:

Experience with working with newsletters, emails, and email service providers

HTML skills

Immigration knowledge

Knowledge of New York and federal immigration system

Experience or interest in product design, Human Centered-design, audience research.

Compensation and Benefits

The salary for this role is $75,000. Health and dental benefits and four weeks of paid time off are provided. Eventually, we hope to be able to return to our office full-time, but as of now, the position will be largely remote. We highly value lived experiences in the issues we cover as a news organization. We also understand the difficult work realities due to the pandemic and are open to accommodating people with different work requirements.

Apply for this role here: https://airtable.com/shrXd80tYpua448TC
Deadline to apply: Sep. 30, 2021

To Apply

Apply for this role here: https://airtable.com/shrXd80tYpua448TC