Who are we?
Remapping Debate is a small, vibrant, not-for-profit online news journal with stable funding and a mission to counter a profoundly destructive assumption that undergirds most reporting: that existing U.S. domestic public policies somehow reflect nothing more than submission to inevitable facts of life that always have been and always will be.
Some of the questions that animate our work include: What kind of society do we want to have? Aren’t there choices to make that would yield a better life for more people? Shouldn’t we imagine desired substantive outcomes and then figure out what is achievable, rather than starting with the assumption that a wide range of outcomes is not affordable, not politically practical, and ought not be explored?
What is the job?
The opportunity for an experienced, hard-hitting reporter to work full-time on stories of substance that require the reporter to go well beyond simply “finding the story that is out there,” instead probing interview subjects regarding the crucial “why” and “why not” questions of U.S. domestic public policy that others are not asking. This work gives a reporter the chance every day to investigate her own hypotheses and to imagine new alternatives to the narrow range of policy choices presented in who-will-win coverage.
Continually learning new subjects, you will inform your reporting with deep context and rigor, always including probing and challenging interviews of policy makers and advocates as part of your inquiries.
How much and what benefits?
For people who have the talent, experience, and appreciation of our mission to generate the kind of stories we’re interested in producing, we anticipate offering a starting salary of between 100K and 125K, along with great vacation and 100 percent employer-paid health insurance premiums.
When?
As soon as possible, although we are open to working with people who need time to effect a transition.
Where?
Flexible. You can work out of our New York office, or be a bureau unto yourself if you need to remain in your current location.
Cautions!
This job does not call on you to write essays, armchair analysis, or commentary pieces. It does require, among other things, the skills of an analyst and essayist to be deployed in the service of get-your-hands-dirty reporting.
Remapping Debate reflects the vision of its editors, and the editors are deeply involved in the development and ultimate shape of every piece.
How do you apply?
Please use the web form at the right of this page, and be sure to explain in the letter you submit: (1) your understanding of the specialized approach to reporting taken by Remapping Debate; (2) your sense of what constitutes a sustainable pace of story production in connection with investigating, reporting, and writing pieces of depth and complexity on a wide range of domestic public policy topics; and (3) how you propose to secure and conduct “probing and challenging interviews of policy makers and advocates” in an environment where those policy makers and advocates are accustomed either to not getting tough questions to field or to avoiding those reporters they suspect might push them beyond their sound bites. Please also make sure to include (in strictest confidence) your current (or most recent) salary.
Thank you.