About the job

LNP Media Group, Inc., located in historic downtown Lancaster, is in interested in you! The LNP Media Group, Inc. family of print and digital publications, part of Steinman Communications, is the biggest and most influential provider of news in Lancaster County, with a history of 225 years of excellence. We are searching for detail-oriented and curios reporters.

The Data and Visualizations Reporter, working under the direction of the Watchdog & Public Service Team Leader, obtains and sifts through publicly available datasets to identify trends, spot hard news and develop informative and entertaining enterprise stories for digital and print audiences. The reporter sources data, looking for the previously unearthed story, but writes about people – about the issues and the policies that affect their lives. The reporter is skilled at analyzing and visualizing relevant data for the web using free and paid tools, and languages including R, Python and D3.js. The Data & Visualizations Reporter will also collaborate with other reporters and other teams to supplement their reporting with appropriate visuals and analysis. This is a good opportunity for an early career journalist who is a quick learner with boundless curiosity and analytical skills.

The Data & Visualizations Reporter Is Expected To

• Exercise solid news judgment, a sense of urgency and the highest journalistic standards.
• Produce daily as well as mid- and longer-range enterprise stories.
• Regularly curate and aggregate content from other sources and present them with relevance and context for our LancasterOnline audience, with additional commentary and explanation.
• Actively build a social media presence by posting content and engaging with our audience. Look for video and social opportunities for story coverage.

Use Parsely and/or other metrics to gauge how well stories perform with our LancasterOnline audience and, with input from editors, decide how to improve poor performers or stop writing about topics that perform poorly altogether.

Work with the team to cover elections.

Reporting

Organizes materials, determines focus and writes stories according to prescribed editorial style and format standards, both for the newspaper and online.
Makes use of all available tools to generate accurate, timely and compelling content and may be required to do so with a digital-first mentality; with attention to both detail and deadlines.
Builds expertise in a particular beat through research, experience and growing a network of relevant contacts in the community.
Regularly curates and aggregates content from other sources and presents them to our audience with additional commentary or explanation.

Digital & social media

• Tracks metrics and conversations on the materials they’ve created to optimize results and shape future work toward that audience.
• Strives to keep our organization at the leading edge of online, mobile and social-network use and innovation.
• Actively builds a social media presence, which includes not just posting content, but also engaging with our audience.
• Thinks visually as well as verbally: Takes photos and shoots/edits video to accompany stories as needed.
• Takes responsibility for his or her own content, in terms of posting it online and subsequently being an aggressive marketer of that content across all relevant platforms.

Qualifications

• Bachelor’s degree in journalism, English, mass communications or related field is required, with a proven knowledge and experience working with current media creation tools and contemporary newsroom systems, producing digital and print content, preferred.
• May be required to meet AP writing style, depending on the publication.
• Solid understanding of news writing, journalistic ethics and story structure.
• Must be able to work nights and weekends as necessary.
• Team player who enjoys a fast-paced work environment.
• Wishes to work in a business environment in which every employee seeks to be great every day.

Work Environment/equipment

• Required to use a computer monitor, keyboard, and mouse for extended periods of time.
• Proficient use of PC, laptop, smartphone, tablet, photo/video equipment
• Ability to travel to events or venues for stories.
• Ability to work nights or weekends on occasion.