Title: Staff Writer, Smartphone, Tablets, and Accessories
Location: United States – Remote
Note for US based roles: Any offer of employment is contingent on providing proof of Covid-19 vaccination prior to your start date, subject to approved medical and/or religious exemptions, in accordance with applicable law.
Job Description
About the position
Wirecutter is seeking a staff writer to join one of its teams covering consumer technology products and services.
As a staff writer, you’ll be responsible for reviewing a variety of tech products and keeping our guides up to date, including working on new and existing coverage of smartphones, tablets, and related accessories. You’ll be responsible for researching and testing products to recommend things that strike the perfect balance of value and quality, often working on assignments that stretch and overlap for weeks or months. To be a writer here, you should also be excited to consider more than just a specs sheet or benchmarking test—a great Wirecutter review can value small but meaningful usability design choices, present sustainable and ethical concerns, and include diverse perspectives and needs.
As a staff writer, you’ll report to a supervising editor or senior editor, and you’ll work on a distributed team with a handful of other technology writers and editors in the section who communicate and collaborate regularly on Zoom and Slack. But you’ll spend much of your time working independently on research, testing, writing, and responding to edits. A successful staff writer on the team will need to be comfortable taking initiative, good with time management, and quick to communicate. This role has the potential to be remote.
Responsibilities:
- Research, report, and write long form guides and short form posts consumer technology, especially smartphones, tablets, and their accessories; think creatively about sources, identify experts, and plan and conduct meaningful short- and long-term tests
- Request product samples and process their return
- Call experts and review academic journal articles and other scientific data; methodically scan user reviews and forums to find what truly matters to readers
- Collaborate with editors to conceive new content and formats and move ideas from pitch to publish
- Collaborate with photo, video and illustration departments to produce visuals to support guides and blog posts
- Work with our community team to respond to reader feedback and questions; work with our affiliate team to resolve stock issues on recommendations; work with our operations team on product orders and testing plans.
- May be required to attend trade shows and product news events as needed to build contacts and expertise in relevant topic areas
- Perform related work as assigned
Qualifications:
- Minimum 2 years of professional writing experience related to consumer technology
- Preference will be given to candidates with demonstrable knowledge of mobile software and hardware, and work covering mobile devices like smartphones, tablets, and accessories
- Ability to explain complex topics to a non-technical audience, and empathy for the frustrated or confused reader. We are not writing only for the experienced enthusiast, but for a mainstream audience who cares about spending their money wisely and buying the right thing the first time
- Experience doing original reporting and research for features, review, or how-to guides is preferred; experience covering products or services, especially involving hands-on or lab testing, is also valuable.
- An inherent skepticism of marketing claims and a commitment to high standards of reporting and accuracy
- Excellent communication and task management skills in a remote work environment; patience to work through multiple rounds of edits and balance multiple reporting projects and deadlines simultaneously
- Adept at finding ways to get in touch with product managers, designers, engineers, and other experts to act as sources within guides
- Comfort gathering large amounts of data, organizing it in spreadsheets, and probing the work for missing information and inaccuracies. Familiarity with Google Sheets and Airtable is also a plus
Overview of Benefits at Wirecutter and The New York Times Company:
Though Wirecutter has a physical office in New York City, the company promotes and encourages a remote workforce, so that our employees can work in flexible and comfortable ways. We are committed to career development, supported by a formal mentoring program as well as tuition reimbursement. We believe diversity fuels innovation and creativity, and we have a variety of affinity and employee resource groups and task forces across The New York Times Company and Wirecutter dedicated to fostering a diverse and inclusive workplace.
The New York Times Company and Wirecutter provide employees and their families access to a comprehensive suite of benefits that includes not only medical, dental, and vision coverage, but also programs that help support their wellness goals. We offer a full suite of work/life assistance benefits including a generous parental leave policy, which was recently expanded in response to employee feedback. Employees giving birth now receive 20 weeks of paid leave. Non-birth, including adoptive parents, spouses, and parents also receive 20 weeks of paid leave. In addition, we also offer 401k matching.