Senior Reporter, Political Influence

Join The Chronicle Team!

The Chronicle of Higher Education is powered by an essential mission: to inform, empower, and connect the people and institutions that work to improve society. Today, The Chronicle serves the higher-education community through its industry-leading news and information resource: The Chronicle of Higher Education.

The Chronicle is seeking a Senior Reporter, Political Influence to join its team.

Higher education is in the crosshairs. Politicians are scrutinizing colleges and universities like never before — reshaping what they teach, who leads them, and how they operate. The consequences of this unprecedented political influence will define American higher education for decades. The Chronicle of Higher Education is seeking a senior reporter to cover this landscape with tenacity, sophistication, and independence.

This reporter will pursue the behind-the-scenes conversations that drive institutional decisions. They will profile the outside actors — political operatives, donors, and advocacy groups — who are exerting influence, as well as administrators, faculty, and trustees navigating the pressure. They will break news, expose trends, and produce the kind of deeply reported work that makes The Chronicle the essential source of news and insight in higher education.

What’s in it for you?

• Medical/Dental/Vision Plans
• 24 PTO Days + Company Holidays
• Paternal/Family/Adoption Leave
• 401K with Company Contribution & Profit Sharing
• Tuition Assistance
• And more!

What you’ll do:

1. Generate distinctive, agenda-setting story ideas rooted in deep sourcing and expertise.

• Cultivate a broad and eclectic network of sources across the higher-education, political, and policy worlds. Develop the kind of trust that surfaces exclusive information before it is public knowledge.
• Stay ahead of the curve. Track developments inside institutions, in statehouses, in Washington, and among the think tanks and advocacy groups that are shaping the national conversation. Identify trends before they become conventional wisdom.
• Generate story ideas that a national audience will find nowhere else — exclusive news, underrecognized patterns, and frames that illuminate what is actually happening and why it matters.

2. Produce authoritative, high-impact journalism across a range of formats.

• Break exclusive news: Nail down internal documents, cultivate sources, and report with urgency.
• Write vivid, authoritative profiles of key figures inside and outside the academy who are driving or resisting change. Pursue them with curiosity, open-mindedness, and skepticism.
• Produce ambitious investigations that examine the coalitions, trends, and forces reshaping institutions — what they teach, how they govern, and who is ultimately in charge.
• Write trend and analysis pieces that give Chronicle readers the clearest possible view of where higher education is headed and what forces are pushing it there.

3. Serve as a public face for The Chronicle's work on this beat.

• Appear regularly as an expert voice in national media, at conferences, and at Chronicle events, including interviews, panels, and live journalism.
• Model Chronicle values of journalistic excellence, ethical rigor, and collegiality. Work productively and respectfully with readers, sources, and colleagues.

Qualifications

• Bachelor’s degree preferred
• 5 years of experience as a journalist
• Experience covering higher education, politics, or policy preferred
• Demonstrated comfort across formats – text, audio, video, live events – is a plus
• Candidates who combine investigative chops with the ability to wright compelling profiles and features will stand out.

To Apply Please Submit the Following:

• Resume
• Cover Letter
• 5 clips of published work
• 3 brief story pitches relevant to this beat

Location: In person or remote. The Chronicle has an office in Washington, D.C. In the event a candidate is hired to work remotely, they must live in one of the following states: Texas, Florida, Maryland, Virginia, New York, California, Michigan, North Carolina, and Washington.