Job opening: Southwest Virginia accountability reporter

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

About the Role

Cardinal News is seeking a reporter to cover accountability, watchdog, investigative and
enterprise stories in Southwest Virginia, with a focus on the localities along the Interstate 81
corridor. We’re looking for a journalist who believes in the power of public service reporting —
someone who shows up, listens first, and shines light on the forces that shape our region.
This role is for a reporter who doesn’t chase the news cycle but builds it — through original
enterprise work, consistent community engagement, and a deep understanding of the issues
people face in the Appalachia area of Virginia. We want someone who can track how decisions
made in Richmond, D.C., and corporate boardrooms affect our local schools, jobs, hospitals,
and towns.


This is a multi-year grant-funded position by the Anne and Gene Worrell Foundation. The
foundation is helping to rebuild local news in a place where the family once owned a vibrant
newspaper.

What You’ll Do

  • Report and write deeply sourced accountability and enterprise stories rooted in
    Southwest Virginia.
  • Develop sources and 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 that holds power to account and elevates underrepresented voices.
  • Experience with enterprise journalism — going 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 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 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.

Location

The reporter will be centered in or about Bristol and Abingdon, Virginia and be part of our
expansion to restore local news in far Southwest Virginia. The SW news team includes an
experienced editor who has lived and worked in the area for decades and two reporters. The
other reporter is based in Wise County.

Bristol is home to the Birthplace of Country Music Museum, Bristol Motor Speedway and the
Hard Rock Hotel and Casino.  South Holston Lake – a TVA reservoir totaling 7,580 acres in
Northeast Tennessee and Southwest Virginia — is just a short drive from Bristol.
Nearby Abingdon is a small town known for its historical nature and its appeal to a hub of
artisans and crafts people. It’s also home to the Barter Theatre, the Martha Washington Inn and
the start of the Virginia Creeper Trail, one of several recreation trails in the area.
Far Southwest Virginia has beautiful scenery and lots to do from its mountain views at Breaks
Interstate Park to kayaking and fishing on the Clinch Rover to exploring one of the many ATV
trails in the region. In the fall, you can see Southwest Virginia’s elk herd against a backdrop of
bright orange, gold and crimson foliage, an autumn view that is hard to top.

Amid the beauty, are economic challenges as the region transforms following a serious
downturn of the coal industry and the loss of manufacturing jobs. As it transitions away from an
extraction economy, policymakers and developers are exploring the possibility of growth
through energy development like small modular nuclear reactors or microreactors, solar
projects and data centers.

It has also become known as an epicenter of the opioid addiction crisis, which is currently
bringing in millions of dollars each year through settlements with the major pharmaceutical
manufacturers, distributors, and pharmacy chains and used for local remediation efforts.
There is no shortage of stories for a curious, enterprising journalist.

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 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.