Newsroom Visuals Coordinator
Job Description
Chalkbeat, the growing nonprofit news organization telling the story of education in America, seeks a visuals coordinator to join our team. Chalkbeat provides deep, local coverage of education policy and practice to inform the decisions and actions that lead to better outcomes for children and families, especially those in low-income communities. We believe that every child deserves an excellent education and that a strong press is vital to making that happen. In our eight local bureaus and a national desk (and growing), we’re working with communities to reimagine and recreate the press public education deserves. Learn more about how our unique model — a nonprofit newsroom covering a single topic in multiple locations — represents a promising path forward for local news. Read more about our mission and values.
The newsroom visuals coordinator collaborates daily with reporters, editors, data journalists, and bureau chiefs across Chalkbeat to make sure our stories are accompanied by the best photos and visual treatments. While this is not a photographer role, if you have photography skills there is an opportunity to take photos occasionally.
We’re looking for a flexible, self-directed person who enjoys interacting with people and finds fulfillment in sweating the smallest details. You must thrive in a fast-paced environment. You will report to Chalkbeat’s Managing Editor for Style and Standards.
Your impact as the visual coordinator:
- Enhance the visual presentation of Chalkbeat’s journalism by maintaining our photo database, building our photo library, and uploading freelance and partnership photos.
- Manage the daily process of selecting and acquiring photos and/or other visuals for stories and track which photos are used.
- Ensure that our published photos reflect the communities that we report for.
- Maintain our asset manager. Fix errors or omissions in metadata and oversee best practices.
- Refine and maintain our guidelines for workflow, stock photography, indexing, partnerships, and editorial and ethical standards for visuals.
- Work closely with the operations team to manage and oversee our Getty Images accounts, freelance photography relationships, and photo partnerships with other newsrooms.
- Train and coach reporters on incorporating photojournalism best practices into newsgathering and story field production.
- Work with our data team to create and organize a searchable database of past graphics and data sets.
What background and skills do you have?
- You are highly organized, comfortable working with databases, and thrive on bringing order to chaos.
- You have strong time management skills and are adept at prioritizing and multitasking while maintaining an attention to detail.
- You have a basic understanding of photography and strong understanding of post-production workflows including metadata tagging, the Adobe Creative Suite, and storytelling.
- You are an avid news consumer.
- You are comfortable working remotely or with remote team members.
- You enjoy working in a fast-paced environment with a variety of personalities.
- You are a solid communicator who knows how to ask for help, empathize with teammates, and take ownership of your work.
- You share Chalkbeat’s commitment to reflecting and including diverse people and perspectives in our content.
Bonus points if you’ve got:
- Experience working in a newsroom.
- Experience or familiarity with copyright law and contracts.
We recognize that every candidate brings interesting skills and experiences that we haven’t thought of. Don’t hesitate to apply and tell us about yourself.
We are working remotely for the foreseeable future, but our virtual newsroom features daily interaction, fun slack channels (#pets and #foodies), personal development sessions, and team exercise and meditation get-togethers. This position can be done permanently remotely, or when it is safe for our offices to reopen, you’re welcome to join us in person in Chicago, Denver, Detroit, Indianapolis, Memphis, Newark, Philadelphia, Washington, D.C., or New York City.
This is a full-time position with benefits. Chalkbeat offers a competitive salary, commensurate with experience, and a generous benefits package, including a paid winter recess from December 26-31.
Chalkbeat is dedicated to equal employment opportunities for all applicants and employees. Chalkbeat encourages people of all races, colors, national origins, ancestries, creeds, religions, genders, ages, disabilities, veteran statuses, sexual orientations, and marital statuses to apply.
