About this role:

Straight Arrow is looking for a Food and Agriculture Reporter to cover how America gets fed – and why that process has become a source of economic stress, political conflict and cultural confusion. This role focuses on the systems behind what we eat: farming, food production, supply chains, pricing, policy and environmental impact, and how those forces collide on grocery shelves and restaurant menus.

Food prices, supply‑chain disruptions, environmental pressures and debates over farming practices have become national flashpoints. At the same time, consolidation in agribusiness, antitrust enforcement, lawsuits and regulatory battles are reshaping the food economy behind the scenes, alongside shifting geopolitics. Americans feel the impact of these dynamics daily, but the mechanics are often hidden or reduced to partisan talking points. This reporter will dig into those mechanics, breaking original stories, exposing pressure points and decoding the narratives that surround them.

We’re looking for a reporter who can connect what happens on farms, in factories, in boardrooms and in courtrooms to the lived experience of everyone who eats – including how those forces surface in grocery aisles, restaurant menus and food culture more broadly. The ideal candidate has a strong scoop instinct, is comfortable working with documents and data, and can balance fast‑moving news with deeper enterprise and accountability reporting that makes sense of food both as an economic system and a cultural artifact.

This role applies to our core mission of exposing how systems and narratives shape people’s lives. In the food economy, that means showing how power structures and information framing determine what Americans eat and pay for, often without their knowledge.

Responsibilities:

• Break exclusive, original stories on food and agriculture, including pricing, consolidation, labor, regulation and industry practices.
• Report on farming, food production, and supply chains with attention to economic power, market dynamics and consumer impact.
• Investigate antitrust issues, lawsuits, regulatory enforcement actions, and government oversight related to agribusiness and the food system.
• Analyze how policy decisions, corporate behavior and environmental pressures shape food availability, affordability and the choices consumers ultimately see reflected in menus and food trends. 
• Use data, public records, court filings and regulatory documents to support enterprise and investigative reporting.
• Cover daily news, such as price swings, shortages, and legal or policy developments, with speed, clarity and context.
• Examine how food and agriculture issues are framed by media, industry groups and political actors – and what those narratives obscure.
• Regularly pitch story ideas for breaking news, explainers, and longer‑term investigations aligned with SAN’s mission.
• Develop sources across farming, agribusiness, restaurants, labor, government, legal and academic communities.
• Collaborate with editors and multimedia teams to translate reporting into digital, video and social formats.

Qualifications:

• Bachelor’s degree in journalism, environmental studies, agriculture, economics, public policy, or a related field is preferred.
• 3-5 years of proven experience as a reporter covering food systems and agriculture.
• Demonstrated ability to generate scoops and exclusives through sourcing, records and persistence.
• Experience reporting on antitrust, litigation, regulatory agencies or corporate accountability is strongly preferred.
• Comfort working with data, public records and legal documents.
• Strong researching, writing, and storytelling skills; proficiency in AP Style.
• Ability to explain complex systems clearly without advocacy or oversimplification.
• Comfort working under tight deadlines while managing longer‑term enterprise projects.
• Familiarity with SEO, CMS tools (such as WordPress), and audience analytics.
• Experience with multimedia or cross‑platform journalism, or willingness to learn.
• Commitment to clarity, transparency and unbiased reporting.

Compensation & Benefits:

• The salary range for this position is $80,000-$100,000.
• Straight Arrow offers comprehensive health and wellness coverage that ensures our employees have the care and coverage they need to stay healthy, build current and future financial security and maintain work-life balance. All full-time employees and their dependents are eligible to enroll in our benefits. That includes generous paid time off, paid holidays and floating holidays; health coverage, vision and dental plans; retirement plans like the company's 401(k) plan with company match; and more.  

#LI-Remote

About this role:

SAN is hiring a remote Media, Bias and Algorithms Reporter to investigate how information is built, distributed, distorted and amplified in the digital age – and to explain it with clarity, not cynicism. This is not a traditional media‑industry beat. You won’t often cover newsroom shuffles or corporate M&A. You’ll probe the deeper machinery of the modern information environment: the recommendation engines behind what people see, the structural incentives that create bias (intentional or not), the platforms that mediate nearly every public conversation, and the invisible feedback loops that shape how society understands current events.

People increasingly experience the world through systems they don’t control and can barely see. Audiences know bias exists, but most have no way of understanding how it works or why narratives diverge so dramatically across outlets and platforms. Your reporting will give them that power. You’ll decode competing narratives, reveal blind spots in media framing, contextualize how algorithms elevate or suppress certain stories, and help audiences understand why people can see the same event as two different realities.

This beat taps directly into one of the country’s most widespread frustrations: navigating a chaotic information landscape where everyone senses distortion, but few understand its mechanics. It is central to SAN’s mission and a clear opportunity for differentiation, filling a gap the broader media rarely covers with depth or transparency. Your work will provide clarity where there is confusion, depth where there is noise, and context where there is polarization. If you want to help audiences see the whole board – not just the headlines – this is the beat for you.

Responsibilities:

• Explain the information ecosystem. Report how algorithms, platforms, search engines, news feeds, creators and publishers shape public perception, often in ways even they don’t fully understand.
• Decode bias and information flow. Track where narratives originate, why they spread, who benefits and what gets lost along the way.
• Investigate system design. Analyze how recommendation systems, ranking mechanisms, moderation policies and optimization goals influence what information rises to the top.
• Cover daily news with clarity and urgency. Produce quick‑turn analyses and explainers when narratives are forming; identify patterns early and contextualize them for a general audience.
• Create human‑centered stories. Connect systemic dynamics to real people – voters, parents, creators and communities – showing tangible impacts and tradeoffs.
• Demystify complexity. Make technical, structural and abstract concepts understandable without oversimplifying using plain language, sharp framing and transparent sourcing.
• Collaborate across formats. Work with visual, audio and video teams to turn reporting into compelling explainers, short documentaries, interactives and social‑native pieces.
• Use rigorous, transparent methods. Where appropriate, design lightweight tests, audits or replicable analyses; publish methodology boxes that explain what you did and what the limits are.
• Build a diverse source network. Develop relationships across platforms, search, trust & safety, recommendation, UX, policy, academia, creators and advocacy groups to stay ahead of emerging dynamics.

Qualifications:

• 7+ years of reporting experience spanning technology, media, platforms, digital culture, politics or information systems.
• A reporter’s instinct for pattern‑spotting, source‑building and asking questions that get to the structural “why,” not just the surface “what.”
• Working understanding of how systems like TikTok, YouTube, Google Search, Meta’s feeds, and X/Twitter surface and prioritize content (you don’t need to be an engineer, but you should understand the mechanics and incentives).
• Demonstrated ability to translate complex or technical topics into clear, trustworthy journalism for a general audience.
• Comfort with ambiguity and partial visibility; experience piecing together truth via interviews, documents, research, experiments and creative methodology.
• A track record of original, insightful reporting: features, investigations, data‑driven explainers and smart, quick‑turn analysis.
• Exceptional researching, writing and storytelling skills; skilled in AP Style.
• Knowledge of SEO and experience with CMS (e.g., WordPress) and analytics tools.
• Commitment to accuracy, clarity, and unbiased storytelling; meticulous about verification and transparency.
• Ability to work under tight deadlines and manage multiple assignments across formats and platforms.
• Experience with multimedia or cross‑platform journalism, or a strong willingness to learn.

Bonus Qualifications:

• Experience covering tech companies, platforms or digital culture.
• Familiarity with data journalism techniques (Excel/Sheets; comfort with basic scraping or Python/R is a plus but not required).
• Understanding of audience behavior, recommendation dynamics or media studies.
• Track record of spotting emerging narratives before they reach the mainstream.
• Experience with trust & safety, integrity or platform policy beats.

Compensation & Benefits:

• The salary range for this position is $90,000-$120,000.
• Straight Arrow News offers comprehensive health and wellness coverage that ensures our employees have the care and coverage they need to stay healthy, build current and future financial security and maintain work-life balance. All full-time employees and their dependents are eligible to enroll in our benefits. That includes generous paid time off, paid holidays and floating holidays; health coverage, vision and dental plans; retirement plans like the company's 401(k) plan with company match; and more.  

#LI-Remote

How (and what) to pitch Straight Arrow News

Straight Arrow News is open to excellent stories from freelance journalists. We welcome pitches that tackle important, timely topics in ways that will register with a national audience invested in reading unbiased reporting. 

We are actively seeking stories that can make local issues feel compelling to a national audience. For example, could a new law passed in one state be of interest to folks across the country facing similar issues? Has there been a breakdown of public services – trash, water quality, improper billing – in one city that can serve as an entry point into a national conversation? We love stories that offer solutions. 

Above all, we value original reporting that can take a national or local issue and, as we say, “Make It Matter”.

Typically, Straight Arrow News freelance stories fall into three categories:

• Standard features: Stories that require at least three sources interviewed and produce original reporting; typically 800-1,000 words. 
• Deep dives: Stories that require more than three sources interviewed, as well as analysis and data, which may be acquired via public records requests; typically 1,200 to 1,500 words. 
• Longform enterprise: Stories that require at least five sources to be interviewed, as well as intense analysis and the use of several data points, which are not readily available and for which the reporter smartly uses investigative skills to find a unique way to tell a story that hasn’t been reported elsewhere; may exceed 2,000 words.

To submit a freelance pitch to Straight Arrow News, please fill out this pitch form.