Senior Business Reporter, Greater Seattle

About The Center Square

The Center Square is a 501(c)(3) nonprofit national newswire service headquartered in Chicago with staff deployed across the country. We produce original, taxpayer-focused government accountability journalism for more than 1,360 local, state, and national media partners, reaching 141 million Americans daily.

Focus on the size, scope, cost, and effectiveness of government is our distinct lane, and has been the key to The Center Square's unprecedented growth as a U.S. news brand. At a time when news media is contracting, and media trust is waning, The Center Square is growing rapidly by providing original news that is well reported, fair, and focused on covering government for the people and holding those in power to account.

We call it The Center Square Way. It means we hold government accountable by showing people what their government is doing, what it costs them, and what it means for the taxpayers, businesses and communities where they live. Our reporters do not write opinion. Our editors do not tolerate it. We compete on accuracy, velocity and frequency — filing more stories, faster, with fewer errors than anyone else covering this beat. Every story goes through a backfield editing system designed to catch what other newsrooms miss. That’s not a slogan. It’s how we operate, every day, across every state we cover.

The Center Square has grown from a startup in 2019 to one of the most widely distributed newswire services in the country — because media partners trust our copy and readers trust our approach. We intend to keep earning that trust.

We operate as professionals. We compensate our employees well and offer a generous benefit plan.

The Role

The Center Square seeks to hire a full-time business reporter dedicated to covering the business climate in greater Seattle and statewide, with a particular focus on King, Snohomish, and Pierce counties.

This position fills a critical gap in Washington’s media landscape: serious, non-partisan reporting on how taxation and regulation affect job creators, workers, and economic opportunity.

The beat will include:

• Investigating and explaining how state and local taxation affects business operations and employment
• Report on regulatory burdens and their real-world impact on small and large employers
• Daily coverage of developments in the wider business community with a an eye toward the intersection of business and regulation, with some regular drumbeat of results from companies that matter to the area.
• Cover workforce challenges, personnel costs, and labor policy from a taxpayer-centric perspective
• Develop enterprise stories showing the human impact of business-hostile policies
• Report on how the regulatory and taxing environment also impacts the agriculture, healthcare, logistics and distribution, service-related and transportation industries
• Produce video interviews with business owners explaining challenges they face
• Track business relocations, closures, and expansions, and explain why they’re happening

The ideal candidate brings:

• Deep understanding of how regulations and taxation impact business operations
• Proven ability to analyze complex policies and calculate real-world compliance and tax costs
• Track record covering regulatory agencies, legislative processes, and corporate strategy
• Established source network among business leaders, regulators, and policymakers

The Washington state senior business reporter will produce 5-7 weekly, original, timely, and relevant stories examining business developments through our signature taxpayer-accountability lens – quantifying hidden costs, tracking business flight to competitive states, and investigating whether government interventions achieve stated goals. About two thirds of the job will be daily reporting; one third will be deeper dive enterprise and investigative reporting.

The Center Square’s reporting reaches 141 million Americans through 1,360+ media outlets that republish the work, making this position the Pacific Northwest's authoritative voice on how government policies impact economic vitality. While others cover press releases, the business reporter will follow the money from ratepayers to rate cases, from taxpayers to green subsidies, from small businesses to regulatory compliance costs.

This role matters because Washington faces critical competitiveness challenges

Join The Center Square to practice genuine authentic and original government-accountability journalism, holding government accountable while serving citizens and job creators who bear the costs of policy experiments.

Send cover letter, resume and work samples to jobs@thecentersquare.com.