Feb 22, 2022

WIRED Has A New Opening For Staff Writer—Gaming. You should Apply!

WIRED is Looking For a Proven Journalist Who Can Break News, Provide Contextual Analysis, and Tell Human Stories

While reviews or impressions of individual games could be part of the job, the primary focus will be on the industry itself: its key companies and individuals, its power structures, its societal influence, and its role in shaping the future of online interaction. One day you might be reporting on a big game company’s attempts to deal with harassment on one of its platforms, another analyzing what to make of the latest gaming NFT scheme, and another opining on what a new game’s aesthetic says about the zeitgeist. When big news happens—a major acquisition, a deplatformed streaming star, a crunch controversy—your goal will be not just to explain what happened, but why, and what it portends. You’ll apply original reporting and a critical eye toward the publishing giants, the metaverse, esports teams, Twitch, and hardware upstarts and incumbents alike. Whatever the topic, your coverage will aim to be informative and meaningful to both gamers and non-gamers.

You should have some experience covering the video game industry, and be excited by the prospect of storytelling across a wide range of formats. While this position will primarily work on the news cycle, there’s also the potential to pitch and write long form narrative features. (If you’ve never written one of those, don’t worry: WIRED has some of the finest longform editors in the business, and we love helping people who’ve got reporting chops and raw writing talent grow into gifted storytellers.) You may also have the opportunity to take part in our podcasts, video series, or live events. We’ll encourage you to find and tell stories from all around the world, and you’ll be part of a growing and increasingly global newsroom of smart, kind, nerdy, and well-informed colleagues who are always brimming with ideas and eager to help each other out.

Pandemic permitting, you can work out of WIRED’s offices in San Francisco, New York or London, but if you live in the United States or UK outside those cities you can be based remotely.

Primary responsibilities:

Pitch, report, and write stories on the video game beat, balancing news and analysis of the most important stories with original investigative reporting, features, or essays
Collaborate with other members of the culture and business teams in shaping the WIRED coverage agenda for video game-related issues
Collaborate with audio, video, events, and social media teams as needed to develop ways of telling stories on other platforms

Skills and qualifications: