INSIDER editorial fellow, data and news research

INSIDER is hiring a paid editorial fellow to work with our senior editor for data and our real-time investigations editor. 

The Insider Fellowship Program is for early career journalists who want to spend six months learning from a newsroom full of passionate, dedicated journalists. Fellows are assigned to teams and become experts in digital storytelling. They produce real work that is distributed to our audience of millions, and by the end of six months are prepared for the next phase of their journalism careers. For more information on the Insider Fellowship Program, see here.

The news research fellow will assist the data and real-time investigations editors in their work, pursuing research projects for investigative stories and helping to compile and parse data, as well as learning the principles of data and investigative reporting. This is not a writing-focused position, but there will be opportunities to contribute to published stories. It is a highly collaborative role that requires critical thinking around expanding the breadth and depth of coverage we offer and a solid background in research tools and methods.

All our editorial fellows should have:

• Experience reporting and writing (school publications are great)
• A passion for digital storytelling and voracious reading habits
• Familiarity with digital and social media
• Ability to work quickly and collaboratively with a fast-paced team
• Light HTML and/or Photoshop experience
• Proofreading and copyediting skills

Additionally, for this position, we’re looking for someone with the following:

• An insatiable curiosity and a desire to uncover new facts and stories
• A strong work ethic and the motivation to do data cleaning, research and analysis
• A proven ability to quickly and creatively locate difficult-to-find information
• Aggressive reporting instincts and willingness to make cold calls 
• A general familiarity with basic statistics and how to use numbers in reporting
• Strong writing skills or the motivation to gain them
• The desire and initiative to learn on the job

While this position will involve various areas of expertise, intense subject matter expertise across all angles isn’t expected. The ideal candidate will have a diversity of skills or experiences but must be willing to learn new techniques on the fly. Existing experience in any of the following areas is a plus:

• Freedom of Information Act (or equivalent state-level public records laws)
• Finding and interviewing sources
• Archival research
• PACER and state-level court records
• Microsoft Excel
• Python or other programming languages
• Data scraping 
• Data cleaning
• Statistical analysis 
• Data visualization

This is an hourly paid fellowship based out of our New York office. Fellows are encouraged to work 40 hours a week, and fellowships run for six months. Start date for this position will be in March or June.

INSIDER is great journalism about what passionate people actually want to know. That’s everything from news to food, celebrity to science, politics to sports and all the rest. It’s smart. It’s fearless. It’s fun. We push the boundaries of digital storytelling. Our mission is to inform and inspire.

APPLY HERE with a resume and cover letter telling us why you want to be our data and research fellow. Please include links to relevant clips if you have them. Indicate whether you would be able to start in March or in June. Applications are due March 1.