Job opening: Reporter – Education

Location: Southwest or Southside Virginia (Remote within region)
Employment Type: Full-time

About the Role

Cardinal News is looking for an experienced education reporter to join our team covering Southwest and Southside Virginia. 

From rural elementary schools to colleges and universities on the cutting edge of medicine and science, you’ll be writing about a region rich in stories that aren’t getting the attention they deserve.

Your reporting will center the voices of the people we serve, not just the powerful. You’ll be part of a team committed to covering stories that too often go untold, and to delivering that journalism in ways that work for our communities and empower them — you’ll be boots on the ground while also staying aware of how decisions made hundreds of miles away can impact your readers.

What You’ll Do

  • Report and write deeply sourced accountability and enterprise stories.
  • Keep your eye out for trends that inform and enable communities to thrive, and amplify the voices and stories that deserve to be celebrated.
  • Engage regularly with local residents, community groups, and institutions to understand issues from the ground up.
  • Pitch and develop original stories that connect local experiences to broader systems and structures.
  • Use data, public records and in-person reporting to uncover information that informs and empowers.
  • Collaborate with editors and multimedia colleagues to present stories across platforms — from written features to visual, audio and social formats.
  • Help build trust by meeting people where they are — including exploring nontraditional storytelling methods and attending local events or meetings.

What You’ll Bring

  • A track record of (or strong interest in) accountability reporting about the decisions that impact schools, from the hall that leads to the school gym to the halls of power in Richmond. You’ll write stories that hold power to account and elevate underrepresented voices.
  • The reporting experience to go beyond press releases and breaking news to report original, impactful stories.
  • Deep curiosity and respect for rural communities, including a desire to understand and reflect the realities of life in Southside and Southwest Virginia.
  • Comfort with community engagement, from listening sessions and source building to co-creating coverage with audiences.
  • Strong writing, reporting and story development skills across a range of formats.
  • A willingness to experiment with multiplatform storytelling (with support) — whether that’s short-form video, audio, newsletters or public events.
  • Working knowledge of public records, data reporting and open-source research (or a willingness to learn).
  • A collaborative, team-oriented approach and a commitment to journalistic integrity, equity and transparency.

Preferred (But Not Required)

  • Familiarity with Southwest and Southside Virginia or a background in covering the impact and importance of education in rural, underrepresented or economically transitioning regions.
  • Experience with multimedia tools (photography, video, audio or social-first storytelling).
  • Comfort working remotely with a distributed team while staying connected and communicative.

About Cardinal News

Cardinal News is a nonprofit digital news organization serving communities in Southwest and Southside Virginia. We were founded in the fall of 2021 to report the untold stories of these regions and strengthen the voices of the people in our communities who have been sidelined in the commonwealth’s political, economic and cultural conversations — simply because of where they live.

We were named Startup of the Year by the Institute for Nonprofit News in 2021, and LION Business of the Year by LION Publishers in 2025. We are continuing to grow rapidly, with expansion projects underway to deepen our reporting and broaden our local news network to better serve our communities.

We want our team members to feel supported in their work. We budget for training, travel, and the tools necessary to tell stories well. Our benefits include:

  • Competitive pay
  • Paid holidays and vacation time
  • Health, dental, and vision insurance
  • Contributions to health savings accounts
  • A matching 401(k) plan
  • Short- and long-term disability insurance
  • Most importantly: collaborative, mission-driven teammates

To Apply

Please send a résumé, 3-5 clips or portfolio samples, and a brief cover letter by March 15 to jobs@cardinalnews.org, explaining why you’re a good fit for this role and what you’d be excited to discover and cover for a readership made up of many audiences, even within a single beat.

We Value Diverse Perspectives

We are an equal opportunity employer and do not and will not discriminate in employment, recruitment, board membership, advertisements for employment, compensation, termination, upgrading, promotions, and other conditions of employment on the basis of race, color, religion (creed), gender, gender expression, age, national origin (ancestry), disability, marital status, sexual orientation, or military status.

We also know not every qualified candidate will meet every single requirement listed above. If you have most of them, and you’re passionate about serving communities with rigorous, empathetic journalism, we want to hear from you.