Hiring! Betabeat, social reporters, commercial mortgages

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Hiring! Betabeat, social reporters, commercial mortgages

I’ve gotten a lot of questions about hiring at the Observer and what I’m looking for, so here goes:

I have a few slots I need to fill immediately and some that can wait a few months till we do a national roll-out. But here are the immediate needs:

BETABEAT REPORTERS

I have a couple of slots available for Betabeat. I’m looking for scoop-driven reporters who are comfortable working in both long and short form. I’ll take someone who hasn’t been covering tech if they can demonstrate interest in and knowledge of the subject area, but would prefer to get people who are already sourced up on the beat. Specific holes: I’d like some who’s good with the financing side (potentially someone who’s covered venture capital, can parse a term sheet, etc.) and someone who’s good with finding Observer-y angles on big national tech stories.

Post count requirements aren’t aggressive (4 posts a day) but as with any beat, you get sourced up faster the more news you break and small items can turn into big developing stories pretty easily. Tech coverage these days tends to be fluffy, if not outright cheerleader-y, and Betabeat doesn’t work that way. When we started, I had a tech entrepreneur complain to me that because Betabeat wasn’t afraid to be negative that it “wasn’t being supportive of the industry.” I told him that Betabeat didn’t exist to support the industry; it existed to cover it. But it says something about the state of tech coverage generally that his expectation was we only write things that would benefit our subjects. Because much of the industry isn’t accustomed to being written about in terms that are anything less than glowing (and by glowing, i mean practically radioactive), some people don’t even know how to interact normally with journalists.

I think as the beat gets more competitive, this will change. But we’re on the ground floor. Which is an exciting place to be.

SOCIAL REPORTERS

I need someone who’s obsessed with New York high society and can ID any socialite in a 20 mile radius. This person would be responsible for some events coverage, but also needs to be able to break news daily. (If Ron Perelman gets another divorce, you have the court documents. If there’s infighting on the board of the Century Club, you know who to call to get the dirt.)

You also need to be the kind of person who wants to cover the party more than they want to attend it. You need a thick skin and you must be unafraid to ask people uncomfortable questions and be able to tolerate getting periodically screamed at on the phone by various publicists. (If you’re doing your job correctly, this will happen with some regularity. If this is actually your idea of fun, you’d probably enjoy it here. )

When I was at New York magazine working on Intelligencer, I went to an after party for a Miramax premiere and saw Harvey Weinstein put an Observer reporter in a headlock and threaten to kick his ass. I’m not saying this will happen to you, but I’m not saying it won’t, either.

On the upside, it’s your job to make badly-behaved power elites squirm and that can be very enjoyable. You also get to learn how to do longer narrative stories in a style that’s witty and smart—and you never have to apologize for being insider-y.

Interested? Send a resume, clips and some story ideas to me at espiers AT observer dot com.

I also have more positions opening up in a few weeks and I’ll update then.

COMMERCIAL MORTGAGE REPORTER for Commercial Observer (the Observer’s real estate trade). The description:

The Observer Media Group is seeking a full-time staff reporter for a new monthly magazine focusing on New York’s commercial mortgage industry, note sales and other financial instruments associated with real estate. A background in business/finance as well as a working knowledge of the real estate industry will boost the chances for a successful candidate. Duties will include reporting both feature-length articles and breaking news items on the mortgage brokerage industry as well as writing on note sales. Recent graduates or early career professionals will be considered, but must be able to demonstrate knowledge of the commercial mortgage industry. Benefits include health insurance.

For this one, send resume and cover letter to Jotham Sederstrom, who’s the editor-in-chief of Commercial Observer. Jsederstrom AT observer dot com.