Salem Reporter is growing and seeking a fourth reporter to cover community and breaking news.
We started last August with a team of three reporters and an editor and an ambitious plan: become Salem’s go-to news source, with a special focus on in-depth and watchdog reporting holding those in power accountable.
Our co-founders, CEO and editor Les Zaitz and Salem developer Larry Tokarski, wanted to provide a locally owned and managed news source that operates entirely online.
Since then, we’ve shed light into a state investigation of local child welfare workers, brought you an in-depth series on the challenges facing Salem-Keizer’s high-poverty schools and covered the legislative session, from emotional hearings on vaccine exemptions to a bipartisan basketball game for charity.
But we want to do more. We know our readers want to see more news when they come to our site, and as summer approaches, we want to make sure we can cover the local impacts of wildfires and major events happening in Salem.
If you know someone who’s new to journalism but has some experience writing and reporting and is looking to learn more, feel free to point them toward our job posting.
And if you’re a reader or subscriber and have thoughts about what we should do with another person in the newsroom, let us know. You can email [email protected] or [email protected].
Rachel Alexander is Salem Reporter’s managing editor. She joined Salem Reporter when it was founded in 2018 and covers city news, education, nonprofits and a little bit of everything else. She’s been a journalist in Oregon and Washington for a decade. Outside of work, she’s a skater and board member with Salem’s Cherry City Roller Derby and can often be found with her nose buried in a book.
