Job Description

IMPORTANT: DO NOT "EASY-APPLY" FOR THIS ROLE!

READ THE DAILY CATCH BEFORE YOU APPLY.

NOTE: THIS ROLE IS BASED IN THE HUDSON VALLEY, NOT RED HOOK, BROOKLYN. YOU MUST BE WILLING TO LIVE WITHIN 20 MILES OF RED HOOK, NY 12571.

Local Political Beat Reporter

Mid-Hudson Valley, NY (Red Hook, NY)

Job Posting : The Daily Catch , an award-winning independent, online, non-profit newspaper serving the Hudson Valley, N.Y. towns of Rhinebeck and Red Hook (2 hours north of New York City), seeks a full-time staff reporter to cover local government and features. Available: Immediate.

Duties:

• Cover evening planning boards and town council meetings for the town of Red Hook and the villages of Red Hook and Tivoli by attending meetings, interviewing participants, and writing news stories.
• Report and write feature, enterprise, and trend stories, as assigned or on your own initiative, with editor-in-chief guidance and approval.
• Use social media tools, as well as official government and local commercial websites, to find stories.
• Produce weekly “beat notes” detailing story plans and ideas for the week ahead.
• Take photographs with a company-supplied camera for all stories you report.
• Develop ideas for visuals to support your stories: graphs and charts, maps, etc.

 

Requirements:

• Strong, accurate reporting and note-taking skills.
• Excellent writing skills (with accurate grammar).
• Intense curiosity.
• Personality to work independently and remotely.
• Excellent time management skills.
• B.A. or B.S. in any field.
• 1 year of journalistic work experience and clips to show it (may include internships, freelancing or work on a college newspaper).
• A car and a driver's license.
• A laptop computer and a mobile phone.

 

Who Will Succeed in This Job: This is a terrific opportunity for the journalist who is independent enough to work remotely on many days while having regular in-person check-ins with Editor Emily Sachar and our managing editor. You should want to work hard, engage with a wide array of reporting assignments, and feel eager to avail yourself of the expertise and attention of an award-winning editor. A stint with The Daily Catch will give young reporters with 1-3 years' experience the bedrock training for a lifetime as a journalist and the tools, clips, and confidence to forge a satisfying career.

About The Daily Catch: We are an award-winning non-profit, non-partisan news source with a fabulous reputation for incisive and exciting journalism devoted to town government and enterprise. Run by award-winning journalists with decades of experience, we have taken our communities by storm in the four years we've been publishing. We won a prestigious Press Forward grant for 2025 and 2026, and we are soon to announce additional major gifts.

About Our Area: Red Hook and Rhinebeck are rural communities of rolling farms, two hours north of New York City. Red Hook is home to Bard College and a lively food and music scene. Rhinebeck to our south is a historic Hudson Valley village with an Amtrak station serving the Northeast corridor, including New York City. The area has a growing immigrant population and overlooks the magnificent Hudson River. We are home to great hiking, cycling, kayaking, rock climbing, and nature.

Salary and Benefits: $48,000-$60,000, commensurate with experience and quality of clips. 10 paid holidays + 12 PTO days per annum, to be used at the employer’s and employee’s mutual discretion. Many opportunities to earn additional PTO. Some relocation cost reimbursement may be available. A stipend towards health insurance may be available.

 

Hours: 40-hour week, including coverage of evening meetings, typically 3-5 hours per week, and some weekend events.

 

To apply: Please email cover letter, resume and clips to emily@thedailycatch.org. Label your resume with your full name and date, and follow this naming convention in the subject line of your email: Reporter Application: Your Name . In your letter, make clear that you have read and understand the mission of The Daily Catch (TheDailyCatch.org) and describe why you make an ideal candidate for this job. Make sure to have read at least 5-10 stories from The Daily Catch and please discuss a few of them in your cover letter.

 

Applicants of interest will be contacted by the editor. An in-person tryout will likely be requested, for which The Daily Catch will pay a fee.

Job Tags

Daily paid, Holiday work, Full time, Work experience placement, Freelance, Internship, Local area, Immediate start, Remote job, Relocation, Weekend work, Afternoon shift,

Similar Jobs