Open-rank career track faculty position, Cronkite News Washington Bureau

The Walter Cronkite School of Journalism and Mass Communication at Arizona State University is seeking an experienced professional journalist to teach and lead a team of advanced undergraduate and graduate students in its Washington, D.C., news bureau in multimedia journalism coverage of Washington-based stories that impact Arizona audiences.

As a member of the faculty, the professor will have teaching and service responsibilities with the Cronkite School. In this role, there are no research or creative activity responsibilities. The full teaching assignment is within Cronkite News, the school’s award-winning student-staffed, faculty-led news outlet—and the only Arizona news outlet with a bureau in the nation’s capital. Inside the newsroom and across Capitol Hill, the professor will guide students in producing multimedia stories for Cronkite News and news clients around the country. Success in this role is measured by the success of students, and their ability to synthesize skills and knowledge from earlier courses in professional-level journalism inside a working newsroom environment.

The successful candidate will be a journalist of the highest caliber with strong digital news experience, a creative thinker who is comfortable in a highly energized news environment, and a student-first instructor inspired by the future of news. The candidate demonstrates a commitment to accuracy, fairness and collaboration; possesses the skills to inspire, support and instruct a team of student journalists; and instinctively delivers clear direction and feedback.

This is a full-time, benefits-eligible, 12-month appointment as an open-rank teaching professor, clinical professor, or professor of practice, dependent on qualifications; it is based in Washington, D.C., at ASU’s Barbara Barrett and Sandra Day O'Connor Washington Center, just steps from the White House. It is not a tenure-track appointment.

Duties & Responsibilities

• ● Leading, editing, teaching and mentoring a team of upper-level undergraduate and graduate journalism students in a full-time, daily news environment (typical hours are approximately 8:30 a.m. to 6 p.m. Monday through Friday), and/or related courses.

● Coaching students through the ideation and reporting of stories in Washington that impact Arizona audiences, including developing pitches, cultivating beats and sources and executing stories to completion, both for day-turn and enterprise stories;

● Managing daily story assignments together with Cronkite News faculty, and collaboratively planning, managing and producing innovative and professional news and information content across platforms;

● Editing written student work, along with photos and graphics, for publication on the Cronkite News website, as well as for distribution to more than 150 clients across the country;

● Editing scripts on deadline for broadcast students, as well as assisting with set-up and execution of live shots for the Cronkite News broadcast;

● Fostering a culture of innovation by harnessing fresh ideas and experimenting with new tools, technologies and techniques that enhance digital and social media storytelling;

● Managing bureau student logistics, including equipment, travel, housing, transportation and building access, etc.;

● Coordinating with students and congressional Daily Press Gallery and Radio-TV Gallery to secure congressional media credentials for bureau students for the semester, as well as credentials for other special events (e.g. inaugurations, national political conventions);

● Representing the Cronkite School in Washington during visits from both internal and external ASU stakeholders;

● Working with the Cronkite Career and Professional Development team, as needed, on internship and job opportunities in the Washington area;

● Performing service both internally (e.g., committee assignments, student recruitment) and externally (e.g. professional workshops, contest judging);

● Performing other duties as assigned.

About the Cronkite School

The Cronkite School is widely recognized as one of the nation’s premier colleges of journalism and mass communication. Rooted in the time-honored values that characterize its namesake – accuracy, responsibility, integrity – the school fosters excellence and ethics among students as they master the professional skills they need to succeed in the digital media world of today and tomorrow.

Located on ASU’s Downtown Phoenix campus in the heart of the nation’s fifth largest city (with additional centers in Los Angeles and Washington, D.C.), the school has more than 60 full-time faculty members composed of award-winning professional journalists, strategic communication specialists and world-class media scholars. Cronkite professors include five Pulitzer Prize-winning journalists, digital media thought leaders, top TV producers and correspondents, major metropolitan newspaper editors and strategic communications experts.

The school champions a “teaching hospital” model of education, for which it has received international acclaim. Cronkite News is among the school’s signature immersive capstone programs, in which students work in intensive, real-world settings under the guidance of top-flight faculty.

About Cronkite News

Cronkite News is a multi-platform daily news operation that produces daily and enterprise news coverage of critical issues on Arizona PBS and digital, audio and social platforms. The newsroom serves more than 1.8 million households with its nightly broadcast and Arizona and national audiences with its digital content, regularly published by more than 100 media outlets. Cronkite News also serves as an immersive and innovative learning laboratory for students, who create content under the guidance of award-winning, experienced professionals. Cronkite News is anchored inside a state-of-the-art newsroom located on ASU’s Downtown Phoenix campus in the nation’s 11th-largest media market, with additional bureaus in Washington, D.C. and Los Angeles.

About Arizona State University

Arizona State University, ranked the No. 1 “Most Innovative School” in the nation by U.S. News & World Report for nine years in succession, has forged the model for a New American University. Year after year, ASU ranks at or near the top of the list in areas that matter. ASU is a comprehensive public research institution, measured not by whom it excludes, but by whom it includes and how they succeed; advancing research and discovery of public value; and assuming fundamental responsibility for the economic, social, cultural and overall health of the communities it serves. ASU operates on the principles that learning is a personal and original journey for each student; that they thrive on experience and that the process of discovery cannot be bound by traditional academic disciplines. Through innovation and a commitment to accessibility, ASU has drawn pioneering researchers to its faculty even as it expands opportunities for qualified students, attracting some of the highest-quality students from all 50 states and more than 130 nations.

Required Qualifications

● For teaching professor, a relevant terminal degree along with at least 3 years of professional journalism experience in a news production environment

● For clinical professor, a master’s degree and at least 7 years of professional journalism experience in news production environment

● For professor of practice, bachelor’s degree and at least 10 years of professional journalism experience in a major market or national media organization, or equivalent experience

Desired Qualifications

● Experience producing and editing written stories for national audiences

● Experience leading and managing a team of journalists, particularly early-career journalists, and editing their work according to AP Style

● Measurable success in engaging audiences around news content

● Experience covering or directing news coverage of the federal government in Washington, D.C. and a corresponding strong source network

● Experience covering or directing news stories relevant to an Arizona audience and/or localizing important national stories

● Experience developing and producing deeply reported enterprise journalism

● Ability to create and/or oversee audio, photo, video and/or broadcast storytelling

● Master’s degree

Application materials must include:

1. A cover letter stating qualifications
2. Curriculum vitae or resume
3. A link to work samples, with a written explanation of the role the applicant played in the creation and execution of each work sample
4. Contact information (name, address, email, telephone number) for three professional references

The applicant’s name should appear in each uploaded file name. Cover letters may be addressed to the Search Committee Chair, Cronkite Assistant Dean for Instruction and Partnerships Brett Kurland. Questions about the position should be directed to the search committee chair at: Brett.Kurland@asu.edu.

Application deadline is Friday, June 28, 2024. Applications will continue to be accepted on a rolling basis for a reserve pool. Applications in the reserve pool may then be reviewed in the order in which they were received until the position is filled. Applicants must apply online at: http://apply.interfolio.com/147159