Design Columnist

Job Description:

The Wall Street Journal is seeking a New York-based design columnist on its Features & WSJ. Magazine team to deliver charming, well-observed columns and coverage on interior, garden and home design; profiles of distinctive and interesting designers, home owners and architects; and delectable trend stories and profiles that are one step ahead of the group chat. 

The ideal candidate is a high-metabolism feature reporter with a sense of whimsy and a zeal for chasing distinctive, visual and character-driven stories in the interior design and home space, as well as the good sourcing and unique eye on the personalities and market trends tearing across Pinterest and Instagram.  They will know how to interpret those visual ideas in a vivid, writerly manner for a general, national audience, and have a good sense of what stories Wall Street Journal readers will be most drawn to. 

The Journal’s Features teams blend deep reporting, sharp wit and good taste to create compulsively readable quick-turn stories, timely analysis pieces and enterprise features on the subjects of lifestyle, entertainment, culture and ideas. Stories from this team offer a lively lens on the zeitgeist, drawing connections between events and trends in the culture to form original, big-picture theses about the present moment. 

Reporters on the team are also expected to pitch and write long-lead stories—think interior stories or deep photo portfolios with interviews—for WSJ. Magazine.

You will:

• Report, write and fact-check an average one column per week about a trend, person, home or conversation in the design, garden, architecture or interior-market space.

• Burst with highly shareable, witty, ambitious story ideas with clearly understood news value and elegant execution.  

• Bring a deeply seasoned knowledge of key power players and a good roster of sources and contacts to help garner exclusives, identify trends, develop features and work toward access-driven stories we own.

• Easily modulate between surprising, well-reported feature stories and whimsical, amusing essays or interviews.  Embody the Weekend and WSJ. Magazine mission to simultaneously inform and entertain.

• Work collaboratively and egolessly with others—both with Weekend editors as well as with our style and culture teams of reporters.

• Uncover angles and ideas no one else is chasing and develop them into engaging reads.  Amplify traditional profiles, trends or event stories with humanizing detail and great eye for shareable, well-crafted narrative that show potential for long-form features or as cover stories.

• Embrace audience data, learning or continuing to fuse metrics with great taste and imaginative ideas.

• Ensure the voice, tone and standards of The Wall Street Journal are consistently met;  that stories are accurate, fair, objective and of impeccable quality.  Scrupulously uphold newsroom policies and procedures around ethics and conduct.
   

You have:

• Unputdownable clips and exceptional writing and reporting skills.

• 4 to 8 years experience covering a relevant beat, including essays or columns, reported feature stories, and well-developed enterprise or longer-form features.

• A proven history of finding unexpected takes on the home and design world, as well as an eye for elevated cultural and visually sumptuous stories that appeal to a general audience. 

• Great contacts and a dogged, indefatigable sense of how to make stories happen.

• A sense of humor, including a demonstrated ability to find clever, intelligent ways into stories that are being widely covered. 

• A meticulous approach to getting facts and details exactly right, knowing how to avoid errors and bulletproof high-profile, consequential stories with a close attention to detail.

• A sharp sense of how to connect with digital audiences.

• Visual thinking and a vested interest in how your stories will look and present across platforms.

• A collaborative, team-player attitude, an upbeat outlook and an entrepreneurial spirit as we grow and evolve coverage needs.
   

You will report to the Bureau Chief of Mansion within the Weekend team.  This is a fulltime position based in our New York, NY office.

To apply, please submit a cover letter describing your experience and interest in this job, a detailed resume and five clips with a sentence or two as to what the stories show about your capabilities by February 26th. Applications will be reviewed on a rolling basis, and we encourage early submission as the position may be filled before the deadline.

Reasonable accommodation: Dow Jones, Making Careers Newsworthy - We are an equal opportunity employer and all qualified applicants will receive consideration for employment without regard to race, color, religion, sex, sexual orientation, gender identity or expression, pregnancy, age, national origin, disability status, genetic information, protected veteran status, or any other characteristic protected by law. EEO/Disabled/Vets. Dow Jones is committed to providing reasonable accommodation for qualified individuals with disabilities, in our job application and/or interview process. If you need assistance or accommodation in completing your application, due to a disability, email us at [email protected]. Please put "Reasonable Accommodation" in the subject line and provide a brief description of the type of assistance you need. This inbox will not be monitored for application status updates.

Business Area:

Dow Jones - News - WSJ

Job Category:

Editorial/Journalism

Union Status:

Union role

Pay Range: 120,000 - 150,000

We recognize that attracting the best talent is key to our strategy and success as a company. As a result, we aim for flexibility in structuring competitive compensation offers to ensure we are able to attract the best candidates. The quoted salary range represents our good faith estimate as to what our ideal candidates are likely to expect, and we tailor our offers within the range based on the selected candidate's experience, industry knowledge, location, technical and communication skills, and other factors that may prove relevant during the interview process.

Pay-for-performance is a key element in our strategy to attract, engage, and motivate talented people to do their best work. Similarly to salary, for bonus eligible roles, targets are set based on a variety of factors including competitive market practice.

For benefits eligible roles, in addition to cash compensation, the company provides a comprehensive and highly competitive benefits package, with a variety of physical health, retirement and savings, caregiving, emotional wellbeing, transportation, and other benefits, including "elective" benefits employees may select to best fit the needs and personal situations of our diverse workforce..