Be a Key Biscayne Journalist

Female reporter at press conference, writing notes, holding microphone

TO OUR READERS:
A letter from the editor

Do you care about accurate news, separate from opinion or advocacy? Are there important stories or issues that matter to you and your island neighbors that aren’t being reported?

If so — then we need you. We are asking you to become a part-time reporter, or, to use the traditional term, a stringer, for Key Biscayne’s newest news organization, Key News.  

If you’re motivated by a paycheck, this may not be right for you. But we do intend to develop a selected team of paid writers, photographers and video journalists  as we move forward with this new, nonprofit form of community journalism.

We need folks to go to government meetings – local, county, city and state.

We need folks to cover events and conferences.

We need coverage of our schools and county and state policies affecting our schools.

We need sports writers and photographers.

We need cultural reporting.

We need folks who can learn how to track down, and verify and analyze information (don’t worry, we’ll teach you).

We need people who want to cover crime and other public safety issues.

We need folks who can thoughtfully, carefully and with great sensitivity interview and report about various social problems like mental health, substance abuse, financial stress and other real issues in our community.  

The list is endless.

If you’re a good writer, great. But it’s even better to be a good listener and an accurate and detailed observer. Good journalism starts with honest, precise, and authoritative observation.  And, we’ll teach you a few simple guidelines for clear and concise writing.

For both news stories and photos, the standards for Key News are the same. We tell the truth. When we present facts, we cite a source. We do not distort and we do not take things out of context. We do not Photoshop images. We follow generally accepted editorial practices such as those found in The Associated Press Stylebook. If you are writing a news story, the goal is to have a neutral point of view and present opposing views fairly, without merely being a stenographer. We do not shy away from controversy — we cover it. We guard our independence and abide by standards of integrity.  We seek thoughtful and constructive opinion pieces, clearly identified as such. While opinion pieces of course present the author’s point of view, the rules about facts and context still apply. If you are writing an opinion piece, you will be asked for attribution for any factual information you wish to present.

There’s a real need for local reporting in and for local communities. Chats alone do not fill that need adequately.   

Does any of this excite you? I sure hope so!

Part of my job as editor is to recruit new writers and photographers to join our team. Whether your ambition is to write full-blown stories, or just take good notes (we REALLY need that), or to put a toe in the journalism waters there’s a spot for you here. Photographers: we all know that whoever said a picture is worth a thousand words was getting off cheap.

Please reach out to me — and let’s get reporting!