*Applications have closed.*
Report for America will screen applications in February. We expect to interview finalists in March. We plan to make hiring decisions in April. All candidates will be contacted by the Report for America team.
Schedule: This is a full-time position that starts in July, in partnership with CatchLight and Report for America. The deadline to apply is Feb. 3, with references due Feb. 10.
Information sessions: Learn about the fellowship program in Report for America information sessions Jan. 23, 28 or 30. Register here.
Location: This role is based in Santa Cruz County, California. You can work from our office in Downtown Santa Cruz or remotely from within the Santa Cruz County area.
Pay / benefits: $65,000 plus a $5,000 relocation stipend, health care reimbursement, a cellphone stipend, retirement benefits, five weeks per year of paid company holiday plus paid flexible time off.
A bit about us: Santa Cruz Local is a local news organization that serves residents of Santa Cruz County and the Pajaro Valley. Santa Cruz Local was founded in 2019 by local journalists who wanted to give residents an unbiased, fair and accurate source of local news and information. In 2023, we launched Noticias Watsonville, Spanish-language audio news on WhatsApp. Now, we’re building civic news for young people.
The challenge: We strive to grow civic engagement through deep, fair and accurate reporting about local government, housing, health, the environment and other big issues in Santa Cruz County. We lift up voices not normally heard by local government or local media.
To dramatically grow civic engagement, we need to reach communities not well served by local news. We are expanding civic news for young people and Spanish-speaking immigrant communities.
The job opportunity: This is a full-time photography and graphic design role focused on local news for underserved communities in Santa Cruz County and the Pajaro Valley. This position has two goals:
- Help launch and lead a new visually-focused local civic news product on Instagram for 18- to 29-year-olds in Santa Cruz County and the Pajaro Valley. This would involve interviews and some writing, but mostly photography, graphic design and short low-production videos (30-90 second videos).
- Support our English-language and Spanish-language teams with photography for our website, newsletter and WhatsApp community.
With support from staff, you would lead a new Instagram-first local news product for young people (18- to 29-year-olds.) You’ll build on the success and learnings of our beta product: our Election Guide for Students (@watsonvilleelectionguide on Instagram).
About 80% of your time will be spent working on the Instagram product. As a visual journalist, you’ll create photo, video and infographic content that’s tailored for community college students in Santa Cruz County. You’ll conduct interviews and surveys to understand what this community needs from local news. On Instagram, you’ll initiate and manage experiments in content style, format, and subject matter, engage with users on-platform, and track account metrics and growth. You’ll also attend in-person events, led by fellow staff members.
About 20% of your time will be working with our reporters and editors to shoot photos for our newsletter, website and Noticias Watsonville WhatsApp community. You would chronicle the life, culture and issues of residents of Santa Cruz County and the Pajaro Valley.
As part of an early-stage startup, you would interact with people across the organization. An ideal candidate would be ready to learn, take initiative on diverse projects and offer support where needed.
Santa Cruz Local employees are encouraged to take initiative, push new ideas, disagree, offer opinions and alternative solutions. You will have a strong voice in shaping the company’s long-term direction.
You would report to the CEO.
Required skills (please speak to these skills in your written application):
- Social media savvy with proven experience running an Instagram account.
- Experience with photography.
- Understanding of the basics of ethics and fact checking. Some reporting experience, classwork or exposure to journalism is required.
- Ability to fluently engage in internet cultures of people aged 18 to 29.
Our ideal candidate is:
- Entrepreneurial and collaborative.
- Obsessed with audience growth.
- Willing and able to adapt visual work based on the audience’s needs.
- Able to connect with people of many backgrounds.
- Someone who dreams of starting a news product to serve their community.
- Excited to attend Santa Cruz Local events designed to engage young people in civic life.
- Bilingual in English and Spanish, and can conduct interviews in Spanish.
- Comfortable with shooting short 30- to 90-second videos for social media.
If you worry you’re not qualified, please give it a shot and apply anyway. You do not need an educational degree to apply.
Questions? Email, call or text Santa Cruz Local CEO/Co-founder Kara Meyberg Guzman, [email protected] or 831-291-3456.
Santa Cruz Local is an equal opportunity employer that is committed to diversity and inclusion in the workplace. We prohibit discrimination and harassment of any kind based on race, color, sex, religion, sexual orientation, national origin, disability, genetic information, pregnancy, or any other protected characteristic as outlined by federal, state or local laws.
Santa Cruz Local makes hiring decisions based solely on qualifications, merit and business needs at the time.