The Assembly is a digital magazine bringing backroom conversations to North Carolina’s front page. We focus on enterprise stories, revelatory scoops, and authoritative looks at under-covered topics, people, and places. Our stories surprise, inform, and leave readers with a better understanding of the state.
We also lead The Assembly Network, which includes local teams around the state helping us shape the future of state-level journalism. The network also includes INDY in the Triangle, CityView in Fayetteville, the Border Belt Independent in the Sandhills, and The Thread in Greensboro.
We offer a collaborative, innovative work environment where your ideas will be heard and valued. You’ll have the opportunity to make a real impact on a growing organization and on the communities we serve.
Together, we are redefining how North Carolinians connect with the places they live. Our mission is to deliver trusted local news, compelling storytelling, and uniquely voiced cultural recommendations that help readers understand and navigate what’s happening in their neighborhood, city, and state.
We aim to be a reflection of the state, with reporters from—and based in—diverse communities across North Carolina. We also aim to bring national talent to North Carolina that can help us improve the journalism ecosystem in a growing and important state.
We want a newsroom that reflects a diversity of talent and perspectives. We encourage members of traditionally underrepresented communities to apply, including women, people of color, LGBTQ+ people, people who were formerly incarcerated, veterans, and people with disabilities.
Questions and applications should be sent to jobs@theassemblync.com.
Current Openings
Higher Education Reporter, The Assembly
The Assembly is hiring a full-time reporter to cover higher education in North Carolina.
Higher ed is one of our core focus areas, and we are looking to add a curious, ambitious reporter to the team. This journalist will produce feature stories and work with another reporter to write a weekly newsletter aimed at administrators and others in the higher ed world. We are open to a range of experience levels, but a demonstrated interest in and familiarity with education issues nationally and in North Carolina is preferred.
Qualifications
This reporter must:
- Have demonstrated knowledge about or experience covering higher education
- Have an interest in bringing that experience to cover North Carolina’s colleges and universities
- Come with strong story ideas on the beat, both noteworthy scoops and definitive in-depth features
- Have demonstrated an ability to build, maintain, and leverage source networks
- Have experience using public records to tell stories
- Be able to work both independently and collaboratively
- Write with a clear, engaging voice that connects with our readers
Additional qualifications:
- A record of publishing stories with impact
- Experience–or at least comfort–with producing a newsletter
- Familiarity with The Assembly’s interests and style
Salary and Benefits
Salary is contingent upon experience. The starting salary for a reporter with less than 5 years of experience is $60,000. We’ll ask you to be upfront during the interview process about your needs and we’ll do the same about our abilities.
We offer a competitive benefits package, including health care, parental leave, life insurance, and 401k.
How To Apply
Applications are straightforward: four questions and a resume.
- Talk about your interest and experience on the higher ed beat and what you think the Assembly should be covering.
- What do you believe makes a good story great? Give us an example of a great story and explain why.
- We aim for reporting that reveals new information and explains an issue’s broad context. Describe an experience in your career where you helped deliver both sides of that equation.
- We aim to build an audience of higher ed professionals around our premium newsletter, The Quad, and live events focused on education topics. What kinds of stories/features do you think would appeal to this audience, and how would you use our resources to build a community around The Quad?
Send answers and a resume to jobs@theassemblync.com.
We’ll start reviewing applications on August 27 and expect to make hiring decisions as soon as possible.
Product Manager, City Guides & Newsletters – Cary & Triangle
We’re hiring an Audience Engagement Manager to lead our new daily Western Wake County newsletter, based in Cary, and to help craft original going out and lifestyle content for our reader recommendations guides across the Triangle, including Durham and Cary. This is a highly creative, community-driven role for a smart, curious writer and audience builder who is passionate about the region and knows how to curate the most interesting things happening—and how to say it in a voice readers trust and across multiple platforms.
The ideal candidate will blend editorial judgment with a deep understanding of local culture, all in service of a core goal of helping people feel more connected to where they live.
Key Responsibilities
Cary Daily Newsletter
- Produce a daily newsletter that highlights Western Wake’s most relevant news, cultural events, people, and happenings. This will feature The Assembly Network’s original reporting in Cary and surrounding communities, while curating other highly engaging content and information.
- Deliver a conversational tone that builds engagement and habit, driving new readers to our Western Wake content.
- Track newsletter performance and audience behavior to refine format and strategy.
- Solicit reader and community feedback to stay attuned to what locals care about—from city council updates and schools coverage to the best new dinner spots and weekend activities for families.
- Support marketing efforts to promote the email newsletter and boost subscriber acquisition
Triangle Going Out & Lifestyle Guides
- Report and write original recommendation guides for Triangle-wide audiences, focusing primarily on Durham and Cary, distinguished by voice-driven, personality-rich content that cuts through the noise and helps readers take action.
- Surface the best places, events, and hidden gems—then explain why they matter with clarity, style, and cultural context.
- Collaborate closely with The Assembly Network’s Durham and Cary editorial teams to identify high-value, timely, and community-relevant content opportunities.
- Leverage an established, popular “Best Of” brand to surface content ideas, repackage and recirculate existing content, and create cross-promotional synergies.
- Identify, vet, commission, and manage a roster of freelancers to produce additional recommendation guide content, expanding our offering to the communities we serve.
Audience Development & Content Packaging
- Adapt and package recommendation and related stories for multiple platforms—web, newsletter, and social media—ensuring each piece reaches the right audiences in the right ways.
- Write compelling headlines, intros, captions and blurbs optimized for each channel’s format and tone. Ensure that all content is optimized for organic search.
- Work with audience and editorial teams to develop and optimize strategies to grow reach, subscribers, and followers across key platforms.
- Use performance data to guide how to most effectively share, promote, and package. Similarly, leverage analytics to inform future content selection and development.
- Help shape a cohesive, compelling presence for Cary and Triangle content across all Assembly Network brands.
Qualifications
- 5+ years experience in journalism, digital media, and content creation
- Expertise in newsletters preferred
- A clear, original writing voice
- Strong local knowledge, deep curiosity about what you don’t yet know, and the ability to find stories in unexpected places
- Experience with newsletter tools (Mailchimp, Beehiiv, Substack, or similar), CMS platforms, social media strategy, and data analytics tools
- Strong audience-development skills, including creation of native social media content and effective storytelling and promotion across key social channels
- A passion for serving the community you live in and helping your neighbors know and enjoy their home.
Salary and Benefits
Salary is contingent upon experience but starts at $65,000. We’ll ask you to be upfront during the interview process about your needs and we’ll do the same about our abilities.
We offer a competitive benefits package, including health care, parental leave, life insurance, and 401k.
How To Apply
Send a cover letter and resume to jobs@theassemblync.com.
In the cover letter, please address these prompts:
- What interests you in this role?
- What previous experience in local media informs how you would approach this job?
- How do you gauge and apply audience needs and interests, particularly when it comes to newsletters or guides?
We’ll start reviewing applications on August 27 and expect to make hiring decisions as soon as possible.
Government Reporter, CityView
CityView is looking for an ambitious and talented Fayetteville government reporter to join our team. This is an exciting opportunity to produce meaningful, revelatory journalism and provide crucial coverage for the Fayetteville community. CityView publishes a daily news site and a monthly lifestyle magazine. It is part of The Assembly’s statewide network of newsrooms bolstering and deepening journalism in North Carolina.
This person will be responsible for producing 3-4 stories a week about Fayetteville and its government. While the beat is focused specifically on local government, this reporter would have some ability to direct daily coverage as it fits our newsroom’s needs. This person should expect to occasionally write breaking news stories and to regularly attend and cover City of Fayetteville government meetings.
The ideal reporter for this role will have:
- An eye for accountability
- An ear for narrative storytelling
- Original ideas about gaps in the news landscape and how to fill them
- A desire to build relationships and develop a deep knowledge of the community
- A love for local reporting and determining how to best meet the needs of the community they cover.
While this role is mostly focused on daily news coverage, our reporters also have opportunities to work with our statewide partners on longform and investigative journalism. This role will report to CityView’s editor-in-chief and will work closely with others across the organization.
CityView was founded in 2006 as a lifestyle magazine and now includes a daily online news site covering local government, schools, and issues of importance to residents of Fayetteville and Cumberland County. We serve a diverse community of more than 300,000 people, including Fort Bragg, the largest military base in the country by population. Our award-winning newsroom includes two full-time editors and three full-time reporters. CityView became part of The Assembly Network in 2024.
Responsibilities
- Pitch and produce daily and long-term stories of interest to Fayetteville and Cumberland County readers.
- Manage a combination of daily stories, special projects, and occasional breaking news stories.
- Collaborate with other reporters and editors across the organization.
- Build and develop relationships with sources and community members.
- Cultivate a strong knowledge of the government beat.
- Adhere to reporting deadlines.
- Occasionally participate in community engagement opportunities, such as attending newsroom events for CityView readers.
Qualifications
- 3-5 years of reporting experience. (Though we will consider less or equivalent experience as well.)
- Ability to write with a clear, engaging voice that connects with readers.
- Demonstrated experience in pitching and publishing stories with impact.
- Familiarity with the standards and ethics of journalism, as well as both CityView and The Assembly’s work.
- Experience with data analysis and photography is a plus, but not a requirement. We are a small newsroom so being adaptable and willing to learn is key.
- Ability to work both independently and collaboratively.
- Knowledge of and experience reporting in North Carolina, specifically Fayetteville and Cumberland County, is a plus.
Salary and Benefits
Salary range is $45,000-60,000, based on experience. We offer a competitive benefits package, including health care, parental leave, and life insurance.
How to Apply
To apply, we invite candidates to submit answers to the following questions:
- Talk about your interest and experience in local journalism and accountability reporting. Also, tell us what you think CityView should be covering to establish a strong local presence in Fayetteville?
- Tell us about a favorite story or project you have worked on. What made it stand out for you?
- What is your approach to understanding a community or beat? How would you go about building, maintaining and leveraging source networks in Fayetteville?
- Describe a difficult reporting challenge you have faced, and how you overcame it.
Email answers in a pdf along with a resume, the names and contact information for three references, and links to three writing samples or clips to jobs@theassemblync.com. You do not need to send a cover letter.
We will begin reviewing applications on August 4.