Reporter, Health, Food and Safety

Consumer Reports is an independent nonprofit organization dedicated to a fair and just marketplace for all. CR is known for our rigorous testing and trusted ratings on thousands of products and services. We report extensively on consumer trends and challenges and survey millions of people in the U.S. each year. We leverage our evidence-based approach to advocate for consumer rights working with policymakers and companies to find solutions for safer products and fair practices.

Our mission starts with you. We offer medical benefits that start on your first day as a CR employee that include behavioral health coverage family planning and a generous 401K match. Learn more about how CR advocates on behalf of our employees.

OVERVIEW

Consumer Reports is an independent mission-driven nonprofit that has fought for consumers and marketplace safety for 90 years.

Our award-winning journalists have alerted consumers to the dangers of risky foods explained why the threat of ticks is rising offered guidance on supplements and covered our expert evaluations of home lead-testing kits fish oil pills and bike helmets that dont meet federal safety standards. Theyve helped readers navigate the complex world of food safety with in-depth reports on dark chocolate and cinnamon while also covering breaking news on food recalls and product safety federal policy on food dyes and commonsense advice on vaccines.

We are looking for a skilled reporter who has the range to cover a variety of such topics with both short-form and long-form stories. We want someone who will dive into complicated subjects with a mix of curiosity and skepticism find the right experts and studies pay attention to every detail and write quickly and cleanly. This role will offer the opportunity to work on stories that have the potential to change the marketplace and will be a great fit for someone with experience making technical subjects compelling reading. You should also be highly organized and willing to jump on front-of-book service stories in the magazine quick-turn news stories online production in our CMS and other editorial tasks as needed.

The topics you cover will vary so agility flexibility and being deadline-driven are essential to the role. Some experience covering subjects like consumer health medicine nutrition food safety product safety and scienceand an interest in the subjects on that list that are new to youwill be very helpful.

Youll be reporting to the lead health food and safety editor while working closely with our investigative reporters product and food safety scientists and advocates to help to uncover the threats and challenges consumers face in this constantly changing landscape.

This is a hybrid position. This position is also not eligible for Sponsorship or relocation assistance.

How Youll Make An Impact

The stories you report on will champion consumers interests and change peoples lives.

Specifically you will:

• Closely follow beats related to some of CRs top issues including food safety and product safety.
• Write health and food stories for print and online that are a mix of service and news consistently cutting through hype and misinformation and surfacing the best available evidence.
• Turn testing conducted by CR scientists on our product safety food safety and nutrition teams into fully reported stories that include expert input scientific studies real people and research into relevant regulations legislation and litigation.
• Possibly do social media earned media or public appearances related to your stories.

ABOUT YOU

Youll Be Highly Rated If:

• You have the reporting chops. You have at least two to three years of reporting experience that demonstrates an ability to ask hard questions and dig deep to find answers.
• Youre deadline-driven. You consistently turn around engaging well-written stories quickly (at least one a week) while balancing competing demands and priorities.
• You are a sharp writer. Your copy is clean engaging and well-organized. You have a knack for translating complex information into compelling stories.
• You are a quick study. You know how to swiftly bring yourself up to speed on new beats.
• Youre a self-starter. You are organized and can work independently as well as collaboratively across multiple platforms and with other writers editors and experts from other departments.
• You thrive in a fast-paced environment where multitasking is the norm. You enjoy the challenge of mastering several subjects simultaneously and can work on multiple projects at once without losing focus or sacrificing attention to detail.
• Youre eager to grow your skills. You welcome feedback on your ideas and your stories and you tackle revisions graciously.

Youll Be One of Our Top Picks If:

• Youve gone the extra mile. Its a plus if youve earned your Masters Degree in journalism.
• You have experience with certain beats. We are particularly interested in candidates who have reported on food safety chemical safety product safety nutrition and/or medicine.
• You have demonstrated agility. Youve had to pivot to new beats throughout your career and youre comfortable diving into new topics.
• You are insatiably curious. You have a reporters thirst for knowledge and the ability to pose questions that will get you the answers you need.
• Youre familiar with digital publishing tools. You have competency in WordPress and Google Docs with the ability to learn other platforms as needed.
• You appreciate multimedia storytelling. Youre a versatile journalist who can collaborate with designers video producers and photo editors.
• You are data-driven. You are adept at using SEO research analytics and other market data to guide your work.
• You enjoy collaboration. Youre open to working alongside CR colleagueseditors fact-checkers testers consumer advocates layout designers create stories that can help consumers and change the marketplace.
• You are comfortable in front of a microphone or camera. You welcome the opportunity to participate in videos and represent CR in social media podcast and press appearances.

FAIR PAY AND A JUST WORKPLACE

At Consumer Reports we are committed to fair transparent pay and we strive to provide competitive market-informed compensation informed by location as well as the candidates particular combination of knowledge skills competencies and experience. It is expected that most qualified candidates will fall near the middle of the posted salary range. We have three locations: Yonkers NY Washington DC and Colchester CT. We are registered to do business in and can only hire from the following states and federal district: Arizona California Connecticut Illinois Maryland Massachusetts Michigan New Hampshire New Jersey New York Texas Vermont Virginia and Washington DC.

Salary ranges

• NY/California: $110560.34-$112599.96 annually
• All other CR locations: $105032.33 - $106969.96 annually

Consumer Reports is an equal opportunity employer and does not discriminate in employment on the basis of actual or perceived race color creed religion age national origin ancestry citizenship status sex or gender (including pregnancy childbirth related medical conditions or lactation) gender identity and expression (including transgender status) sexual orientation marital status military service or veteran status protected medical condition as defined by applicable state or local law disability genetic information or any other basis protected by applicable federal state or local laws. Consumer Reports will provide you with any reasonable assistance or accommodation for any part of the application and hiring process.