Investigative reporter

Date Posted	October 03, 2025
Industry	Newspapers, Digital Media
Specialty	Investigative
Required Education	Bachelor's Degree
Job Status	Full-time
Salary	$65,000 to $75,000

Description:

Asheville Watchdog is seeking a skilled investigative reporter to join our award-winning team in western North Carolina.

We’re looking for an ambitious, experienced reporter who can produce a mix of short-term and long-term accountability and investigative stories. The reporter’s primary focus will be the region’s healthcare system, including Mission Health and the Dogwood Health Trust. There’s a lot to write about. Asheville’s once-nonprofit hospital, which serves 18 counties, has experienced an exodus of physicians and nurses since its sale to for-profit HCA Healthcare in 2019. In 2023, Mission and HCA were sued by the North Carolina attorney general, who alleged they weren’t honoring commitments made at the time of the sale. The federal government placed the flagship Mission Hospital in immediate jeopardy, the harshest sanction a healthcare facility can face, in 2024. Myriad issues continue to beset the hospital. The Dogwood Trust, a nonprofit created from the proceeds of the Mission sale, controls the spending of tens of millions of dollars each year into western North Carolina to address the social determinants of health.

But beyond Mission and Dogwood, there are countless stories and issues to cover. Asheville, a growing retirement mecca, faces a shortage of medical personnel and acute challenges in retaining those who are here. Intense competition for hospital beds under the state’s Certificate of Need program has led to legal battles between healthcare companies. Impending cuts to Medicaid have profound implications for western North Carolinians, who are older, poorer and sicker than people elsewhere in the state. 

The successful candidate should have a track record of versatility, as they will be called on to occasionally write about other topics, depending on our needs, and will collaborate with other award-winning investigative reporters on individual stories and longer-term projects from time to time.

We’re seeking a reporter who can build sources quickly, is equally comfortable with shoe-leather reporting and using data and public records, and who writes cleanly. We’re a small, highly collaborative team, so the successful candidate must have a record of working well with others. 

That person will join a dynamic, nonprofit newsroom whose mission is to inform and engage the citizens of Asheville and surrounding communities by providing fair, factual, and trustworthy in-depth news stories about local government, institutions, issues, and people. We’re renowned for producing high-impact work and collectively our reporters and editors have won multiple Pulitzer Prizes and other national awards throughout their careers. Since we launched our site in early 2020, we’ve consistently punched above our weight and expect our next hire to help build on that legacy. 

The position is based in Asheville, which is renowned for its art and food scene, craft breweries and outdoor activities in the beautiful Blue Ridge mountains. We offer a generous mix of paid time off plus all federal holidays, and a stipend for health insurance. We expect this reporter to be comfortable working remotely as we don’t have a physical newsroom.

Applicants should send a résumé, a one-page cover letter, and five samples of their work (no shared bylines) to Managing Editor Keith Campbell at kcampbell@avlwatchdog.org.