Posted On: January 4, 2023

Journalism Job

Media Organization: The Daily Catch

Company Description

The Red Hook Daily Catch is a private, non-profit, non-partisan, online newspaper with federal 501(c)(3) status devoted to reporting on the news, personalities, and activities of people, schools, merchants, farms, and government in and around the Hudson Valley towns of Red Hook and Rhinebeck, N.Y. In addition to daily news coverage, we aim to report on trends in our community and to bring the finest techniques of enterprise and investigative journalism to bear. Quality photography plays a crucial role in story presentation.

The Daily Catch was founded in 2021 by veteran journalist Emily Sachar, who assumed the roles of Editor-in-Chief and Publisher during the first year. In June 2022, Board Member Walter Mullin, a cable media executive, was named Publisher, while Sachar has remained Editor-in-Chief and CEO.

In May 2022, The Daily Catch was recognized for distinguished feature writing by the New York News Publishers Association. The Daily Catch’s relationship with a Ukraine correspondent, Pavel Kuljuk, was the subject of an episode on NPR’s podcast Rough Translation in August 2022. An abbreviated version of this podcast was released on NPR’s Morning Edition, and another 7-minute version of the story aired on NPR’s All Things Considered.

The Red Hook Daily Catch was founded on the premise that every town deserves the benefits of incisive, accurate, sensitive journalism, and we also believe in the power of nurturing mentorship to cultivate the next generation of tireless, careful, and probing reporters. The Daily Catch has one staff writer, an events editor, a copyeditor, a social media specialist, and offers paid internships to high school and college students.

Read more about us here: https://www.thedailycatch.org/about-us/

About Our Area: Red Hook is an exquisite rural community of rolling farms and bespoke agritourism experiences that is also home to the esteemed Bard College (which minted journalist Ronan Farrow, among others). Rhinebeck is a more elite community that is site of the country’s oldest inn, the Beekman Arms, and home to New York State’s new lieutenant governor, Antonio Delgado. Check Wikipedia entries, New York Times articles, and The Daily Catch to learn more about both towns.

Job Description

The Daily Catch, an independent, online, non-profit newspaper serving the exquisite Hudson Valley towns of Rhinebeck and Red Hook, seeks a full-time staff reporter to cover local government, features, and trends. Position starts March 1, 2023. This is a great opportunity for an individual who seeks to live in a beautiful place two hours north of New York City and to cover a wide range of stories, from farming and education to climate change and town government.

Duties:
--Attend Board of Education, Town Board, Planning Board meetings and report, then write up, the news developments (some meetings are held at night).
--Report and write feature and trend stories suggested by the editor and/or generated yourself.
--Develop sources and relationships to generate story ideas and to have reliable connections when stories break.
--Utilize social media tools to find stories and to keep abreast of the thoughts of newsmakers in our community.
--Produce weekly “beat notes” detailing plans and stories for the week ahead.
--Take photographs on your mobile phone for all stories you report and solicit additional photos, as necessary, from sources.
--Maintain close working partnership with the editor in our small virtual newsroom.
--Attend in-person Monday work meetings/lunches at our in-person newsroom at the editor’s Red Hook home.

Requirements:
--1 year of journalistic work experience and clips to show it. In rare cases, where significant aptitude is shown, The Daily Catch will consider applicants with less experience.
--Must have a car and solid driving skills.
--Strong reporting and note-taking skills.
--Inclination towards exceptional accuracy, taking great care with facts, quotes, and nuance.
--Facility writing stories efficiently.
Intense curiosity.
--Excellent time-management skills.
--Confidence to dig and ask questions even when you feel self-conscious.

Salary and Benefits: $35,000-$42,000, commensurate with experience. 15 PTO days per annum, to be used at employer’s and employee’s mutual discretion. Flexible work schedules can sometimes be accommodated.

Hours: 40-hour week. Coverage of night meetings and some weekend events required, typically 1-2 evenings a week (sometimes, it may be possible to file stories the next day).

To Apply

To apply: Please mail resume and clips to emily@thedailycatch.org. Please label your resume with your full name and date. Please follow this naming convention in the subject line of your email: Reporter Application Your Name. In your letter, make clear that you are familiar with The Daily Catch and describe why you make an ideal candidate for this job. Make sure to have read at least 10-20 stories from The Daily Catch.
Applicants of interest will be contacted by the editor. A tryout may be requested, for which The Daily Catch will pay a fee.