Staff Writer, Education

We are seeking a talented and ambitious staff writer with strong reporting, writing and analytical skills to lead our higher education coverage. The successful candidate will be able to spot trends and challenge conventional wisdom, while also regularly writing stories with actionable advice and curating lists that help readers decide which colleges to attend and which to tap for the worker force of the future. Education is a vital part of our new Service desk: a team of reporters and editors who work together with our contributor network and AI tools to create essential content that readers can use to advance their academic, career and financial goals. We are looking for a cutting-edge traditionalist–someone who is interested in augmenting the highest-quality reporting, writing, editing, fact-checking and other fundamental journalism skills with AI tools.

Responsibilities

• Content Creation: Drive trend coverage and investigations into the business of education. Transform complex topics, current events, new technologies, policies, and studies into engaging, actionable content. Create clear, engaging and original articles, including actionable tips, how-to guides, interviews, and explainers, that are relevant, authoritative and compelling.
• List Curation: Own our flagship America’s Top Colleges list, which is based on educational and career outcomes, not reputation. Create new lists designed to reflect the changing educational landscape. (For example, Forbes’ popular New Ivies list was launched in 2024 in recognition of some employers’ growing disillusionment with graduates of the traditional Ivy League.)
• Audience-Centric Approach: Deeply understand our target audience of those who believe college is an investment and expect Forbes to provide insight into the return on that investment. Engage with and grow this community through surveys, focus groups, and more. Analyze performance data and adapt content strategies to continuously improve audience engagement, loyalty, traffic and subscriptions.
• Content Planning: In partnership with the Service desk head, manage a content calendar, proposing themes, topics and features that will drive readership and engagement.
• Collaboration: Work closely with other writers, the contributor network, audience development, newsletters, video, art and other teams to ensure your work has maximum impact and advances the overall editorial strategy.

The ideal candidate

• Experience: 4-5+ years in journalism, including experience writing about education. Experience in service journalism, newsletters or similar direct-to-audience content is also a plus.
• Reporting, Writing & Editing Skills: Exceptional writing, editing and proofreading skills with a keen focus on detail, clarity, liveliness, and accuracy. Ability to translate complex information into easily digestible and actionable insights.
• Creativity: Proven ability to craft compelling and engaging content across various platforms that capture attention, while adhering to Forbes' voice and editorial guidelines.
• Strong interest in innovative ways to use AI platforms to assist your workflow; explore and experiment with emerging tools and technologies.
• Communication Skills: Strong verbal and written communication skills to effectively convey messages and collaborate with cross-functional teams.
• Audience-First Mentality: Genuine passion for understanding the unique needs of students, their families and other stakeholders in higher education and to producing journalism that meets those needs.

The annual base salary range for this role is $80,000 - $100,000

Forbes has estimated the compensation range set forth above in good faith. The compensation range is what we believe we will offer, and ultimately pay, a successful candidate. In determining this range, we consider the experience, level of education (if applicable to the role), knowledge, skills, and abilities required to be had by a successful candidate as well as the budget and the company’s pay rates, generally. This said, we may have to make changes to our compensation estimates and job descriptions from time to time and we expressly reserve the right to do so. Should we make any such changes, this advertisement will be revised to reflect such revisions. We encourage you to occasionally re-visit this advertisement to ensure that you are abreast of any changes. Thank you for your interest in joining Forbes!

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