Staff Writer, Education

About Forbes

Forbes is an iconic global media brand that has symbolized success for over a century. Fueled by journalism that informs and inspires, Forbes spotlights the doers and doings shaping industries, achieving success and making an impact on the world. Forbes connects and convenes the most influential communities ranging from billionaires, business leaders and rising entrepreneurs to creators and innovators. The Forbes brand reaches more than 140 million people monthly worldwide through its trusted journalism, signature ForbesLive events and 49 licensed local editions in 81 countries.

We are seeking a talented and ambitious Staff Writer, Education with strong reporting, writing and analytical skills to lead our higher education coverage. The successful candidate will be able to spot trends and challenge conventional wisdom, while also regularly writing stories with actionable advice and curating lists that help readers decide which colleges to attend and which to tap for the worker force of the future. Education is a vital part of our new Service desk: a team of reporters and editors who work together with our contributor network and AI tools to create essential content that readers can use to advance their academic, career and financial goals. We are looking for a cutting-edge traditionalist–someone who is interested in augmenting the highest-quality reporting, writing, editing, fact-checking and other fundamental journalism skills with AI tools.

Responsibilities

• Content Creation: Drive trend coverage and investigations into the business of education. Transform complex topics, current events, new technologies, policies, and studies into engaging, actionable content. Create clear, engaging and original articles, including actionable tips, how-to guides, interviews, and explainers, that are relevant, authoritative and compelling.
• List Curation: Own our flagship America’s Top Colleges list, which is based on educational and career outcomes, not reputation. Create new lists designed to reflect the changing educational landscape. (For example, Forbes’ popular New Ivies list was launched in 2024 in recognition of some employers’ growing disillusionment with graduates of the traditional Ivy League.)
• Audience-Centric Approach: Deeply understand our target audience of those who believe college is an investment and expect Forbes to provide insight into the return on that investment. Engage with and grow this community through surveys, focus groups, and more. Analyze performance data and adapt content strategies to continuously improve audience engagement, loyalty, traffic and subscriptions.
• Content Planning: In partnership with the Service desk head, manage a content calendar, proposing themes, topics and features that will drive readership and engagement.
• Collaboration: Work closely with other writers, the contributor network, audience development, newsletters, video, art and other teams to ensure your work has maximum impact and advances the overall editorial strategy.

The Ideal Candidate

• Experience: 4-5+ years in journalism, including experience writing about education. Experience in service journalism, newsletters or similar direct-to-audience content is also a plus.
• Reporting, Writing & Editing Skills: Exceptional writing, editing and proofreading skills with a keen focus on detail, clarity, liveliness, and accuracy. Ability to translate complex information into easily digestible and actionable insights.
• Creativity: Proven ability to craft compelling and engaging content across various platforms that capture attention, while adhering to Forbes' voice and editorial guidelines. Strong interest in innovative ways to use AI platforms to assist your workflow; explore and experiment with emerging tools and technologies.
• Communication Skills: Strong verbal and written communication skills to effectively convey messages and collaborate with cross-functional teams.
• Audience-First Mentality: Genuine passion for understanding the unique needs of students, their families and other stakeholders in higher education and to producing journalism that meets those needs.

Compensation & Location

The annual base salary range for this role is $80,000 - $100,000. This position is only open to candidates residing in California, Colorado, Connecticut, District of Columbia, Florida, Georgia, Maine, Maryland, Massachusetts, New Jersey, New York, North Carolina, Pennsylvania, South Carolina, Tennessee, Texas, & Washington. Due to business operations and compliance requirements, we are unable to consider applicants based outside these states at this time.

Key skills/competency

• Journalism
• Higher Education Coverage
• Content Strategy
• Audience Engagement
• SEO Writing
• Investigative Reporting
• List Curation
• AI Tools Integration
• Editorial Collaboration
• Data Analysis