Higher Education Reporter

Houston Landing is growing our team of passionate people on a mission to advance democracy in our communities and strengthen the lives of all Houstonians one story at a time. Houston Landing is an independent, nonpartisan news organization devoted to public service journalism. Initially supported by three of Houston’s leading philanthropies including Arnold Ventures, The Houston Endowment, and the Kinder Foundation, we are building a team to support our efforts in sustainability and revenue growth.

Houston Landing is recruiting a Higher Education Reporter to join our team. Houston and our surrounding region are home to more than 8 million people, a thriving and complex global community, rich with tradition and home to multiple colleges and universities.

As Houston goes, so goes Texas.

This is not your traditional higher ed position covering university boards and internal politics. We are seeking an imaginative, inquisitive journalist who will primarily report for an audience of Houston students, many of whom are striving to break into our dynamic, increasingly skilled local workforce. We are interested in stories that:

• Help high schoolers and adult learners understand their higher education options.
• Illuminate the challenges facing students, ranging from affordability to college readiness to accessibility.
• Scrutinize the courses, curricula and offerings at local higher education institutions.
• Hold higher education leaders accountable for providing an affordable, high-quality education that prepares students for the modern workplace.
• Drive the conversation about workforce development in Houston, particularly in the energy, manufacturing, health care and transportation sectors.

Our coverage will focus primarily on our three largest community colleges — Lone Star College System, Houston Community College System and San Jacinto College — which combine to enroll about 150,000 students annually. These three institutions help power the Houston economy and serve as a primary avenue for attaining good-paying jobs in the city. We believe they deserve news coverage that befits their impact on Greater Houston. 

We will, on occasion, cover stories from our local universities and statewide institutions that draw students from Houston, including the University of Houston, Texas Southern University and Texas A&M University. Our primary audience and coverage focus for these institutions will be students, with a particular eye toward first- and second-generation college students.

This is a unique opportunity that requires thinking beyond the typical news coverage of higher education institutions. We are searching for a journalist committed to digging into historically undercovered institutions, building trust with students and educators, and producing content for our target audience in their preferred medium.  

Requirements

What we seek:

• Experience cultivating strong source relationships with people on the ground, as well as those in higher echelons of power.
• Strong writing, with an emphasis on clarity, context and brevity that respects the time of readers and viewers.
• Multimedia skills that demonstrate an ability to take pictures, shoot video and leverage social platforms to expand the reach of the story.
• A collaborative spirit that fits the Houston Landing. We work closely across news teams and with our audience, visual marketing and product teams to create the best possible package for our audience.
• A multilingual reporter is preferred, with fluency in Spanish, Mandarin or Vietnamese.
• Experience with computer-assisted and data reporting is preferred. Our state and federal government publish extensive data that can lead to fantastic stories.
• Experience covering higher education is helpful, but not required. While knowledge of the higher education system is beneficial, we are seeking a reporter who will approach the position with a fresh, open-minded, audience-first perspective.
• You have a valid driver's license, insurance, and vehicle.
  

The Higher Education Reporter will report to Team Leader Jacob Carpenter, an experienced education journalist who has been a finalist for the IRE, National Headliner and Livingston awards. The reporter also will collaborate on occasion with our K-12 education reporters, Miranda Dunlap and Asher Lehrer-Small, who have established themselves as go-to sources of Houston-area education news.

Houston Landing and OpenCampus have collaborated to add a local reporter focused on higher education and all aspects of how the system is shaping the Greater Houston community. Partnership with Open Campus adds the reporter into the Open Campus Local Reporter Network with local higher education reporters across the country with opportunities to contribute to ambitious, community stories and investigative reporting projects. The reporter,employed by Houston Landing, will work with Open Campus and their stories are published by both publications.

Benefits

Our Values

EXCELLENCE: We wake up every day with the intent to be the best at what we do. We hustle. We have grit. When we make mistakes, we’ll learn from them.

INCLUSION: We aren’t all the same, and those differences are what make us better. We’ll respect each person’s uniqueness. Perspective, context and life experiences help us to tell the story.

AMBITION: We will be bold and creative, open to all ideas big or small. We really mean it.

FUN: We are not making widgets, although there is nothing wrong with widgets. We tell stories and stories are often fun, so we believe in having lots of fun.

‍COLLABORATION: We are all in this together. We may not always agree, but we will listen to each other and communicate candidly and respectfully.

Benefits

• Compensation commensurate with experience, minimum of $70,000
• 401(k)
• Healthcare 100% premium paid for employee and 50% for dependents
• 20 vacation days
• Ten personal/sick days
• Generous paid parental leave
• Hybrid work policy (initially we all work together to build culture)
• Stipend for development / learning

We’re committed to building an inclusive organization that represents the people and communities we serve. We encourage members of traditionally underrepresented communities to apply, including women, people of color, veterans, LGBTQ+ people and people with disabilities.