Economic Development Reporter

Location: Charleston, WV | Full-time

About the role

Mountain State Spotlight is looking for an economic development reporter to help West Virginians understand how economic development works—and doesn’t work—for their communities. This reporter will go beyond press releases and political promises to examine where public money goes, who makes those decisions, and what taxpayers get in return. The beat focuses on money, jobs, and power, investigating multimillion-dollar incentive packages while also telling stories from the ground up about the conditions that allow people and communities to thrive.

West Virginia’s history of economic development spending—often with limited transparency—makes it a rich place for this work. The reporter will scrutinize whether investments deliver on promises, who benefits, and who gets left behind, while also covering the broader forces shaping the state’s economy.

Responsibilities

• Track state and local spending, tax incentives, grants, and other public investments intended to create jobs, holding officials and companies accountable for their promises.
• Follow up on big announcements months or years later to assess outcomes: Did the jobs materialize? What do they pay? Did the investment deliver?
• Explain economic changes in the state, from major industries to small businesses and workers, through data and human stories.
• Investigate relationships among government, businesses, and powerful interests, including conflicts of interest, secrecy, and decisions that benefit private entities at public expense.
• Cover the Legislature with an economic lens, showing how lawmakers’ decisions on taxes, spending, and regulation create winners and losers.
• Monitor government agencies and public bodies responsible for economic development, combining desk research with field reporting to assess program performance.
• Build sources beyond officials and corporate spokespeople, including small business owners, hourly workers, and residents.
• Collaborate with other Mountain State Spotlight journalists on accountability stories and investigations across beats.
• Balance quick-turn stories, explanatory pieces, enterprise reporting, and deeper investigations while maintaining sustained scrutiny of the beat.

Requirements

• Relentless curiosity about who benefits, who pays, and who makes decisions in economic development.
• Ability to translate complex topics (money, policy, institutions) into clear, compelling stories for ordinary readers.
• Experience developing sources who share unfiltered perspectives, especially from communities different from your own.
• Comfort digging through budgets, contracts, financial records, and economic data (no economics degree required, but willingness to follow numbers is).
• Persistence using public records laws, even when agencies resist transparency.
• Ability to balance short-, medium-, and long-term work, with a commitment to sustained accountability journalism.
• Collaborative mindset to work with editors, data reporters, and audience teams to strengthen stories and reach West Virginians.
• Focus on journalism that matters—reporting that helps communities understand issues, hold power accountable, and make informed decisions.

Data reporting, visualization, photography, or audio skills are a plus. Experience covering business, government, labor, or rural communities is valuable, but curiosity and reporting instincts matter more. Experience in West Virginia or Appalachia is helpful but not required.

About Mountain State Spotlight

Founded in 2020, Mountain State Spotlight is an independent, nonprofit newsroom producing accountability journalism that exposes abuses of power and gives West Virginians the information they need to improve their state. We prioritize stories that matter to communities, not press conferences, and pursue them aggressively with a long-term commitment to impact. Our work is supported by West Virginians and philanthropic partners, and we’re growing to reach more readers with powerful journalism.

Benefits

• 75% company-paid health insurance.
• 401k retirement plan.
• 25 days of paid time off, plus holidays and an annual “dark week” between Christmas and New Year’s.
• Paid parental leave.
• Parking and technology reimbursement.
• Flexible work schedule (some weekend/evening hours required).

Pay

$50,000–$70,000 per year, based on experience.