News Reporter

The Centre Daily Times seeks an aggressive, enterprising reporter to uncover what’s happening and hold leaders accountable at Pennsylvania’s largest university, and how the decisions made there impact the broader community.

This reporter will lead the CDT’s Penn State coverage (gown) and State College Borough (town) and dive into the tension, challenges and collaboration between the two. This reporter will be our readers’ expert guide to what’s happening at Penn State and why.

The CDT has a responsibility to uncover wrongdoing and abuses of power and to explain the impact of those actions on our communities. This reporter will break news, investigate tips, build sources and mine data.

Examples of this work include:

• Covering campus battles over free speech and academic freedom, and the ramifications for faculty, students and university policies.
• Examining how Penn State’s exemption in Pennsylvania’s open records law affects transparency and morale across campuses and the community.
• Explaining how federal policy shifts are reshaping institutional independence, funding priorities and approaches to DEI in higher education.
• Exploring how an influx of student housing affects the tax base, quality of life and economic outlook for State College.

We expect this reporter to be of service to our audiences who live and work around Penn State, or whose livelihood depends on the vitality of the university. We’re looking for a reporter who will treat community engagement as central to the job, using it as a tool to create coverage that reflects real concerns.

Examples of this include:

• Using callouts and other tools to hear directly from readers about what they’d like to see covered next.
• Engaging with members of the CDT’s subscriber base in virtual and live events.
• Writing a regular newsletter that builds trust and engagement with readers.
• Appearing in and shooting video to be used across the CDT’s social media accounts.

We’re looking for a reporter with a knack for finding the issues and stories that matter to our readers. That requires active community listening, relentless sourcing and smart data analysis.

This reporter will also be expected to take advantage of opportunities to harness and leverage artificial intelligence and other automation to enhance and elevate their work and to find efficiencies that free them to focus on source building and high quality, deeply reported local journalism.

This is fertile ground for a resourceful, high metabolism reporter eager to build a following by publishing often, typically daily. You are right for this role if you understand that frequent, consistent publishing builds habit in readers, who come to trust that they can depend on you to deliver each day, giving them a reason to come back and engage.

State College, located in Centre County, has a rich and vibrant history, and its community offers an interesting place to live with an excellent quality of life. The proximity to the university offers a range of activities. State College hosts a large and lively arts festival each summer and the area has good connections for outdoor enthusiasts.

• Strong writing skills and excellent news judgment.
• Deep knowledge of higher education issues
• An unwavering commitment to accurate, ethical journalism.
• Experience building a strong network of sources to pursue stories that will reach a broad audience.
• An interest in telling stories using a variety of media and engagement tools, and an enthusiasm for learning new skills and technologies.

• Fluency in the science of readership and engagement, including an understanding of analytics, SEO and other audience optimization tactics.
• Strong interpersonal skills, including empathy and the ability to take and give constructive criticism.
• Ability to work nimbly in a job that will be fast-paced and data-driven, shaped constantly by feedback and experimentation and always evolving.
• Bachelor’s degree, ideally in journalism, or the equivalent education, experience, skills and knowledge needed to perform the responsibilities…