About The Quad

The Quad (thequad.news) is the national college newspaper — a platform that surfaces, curates, and amplifies student journalism from 100+ campuses across the country. We believe student voices aren't marginal; they're early signals of where culture and ideas are headed. Founded by two lifelong friends who first sketched the idea in college, The Quad launched in 2025 as the flagship of Beach & Brunson, LLC.

The Role

The Quad curates the best of student journalism — but our own voice matters too. You'll write Quad Originals: national-angle pieces that connect stories happening across many campuses at once. A protest at one university echoing at a dozen others; a housing crisis showing up in student papers coast to coast.

You'll have a resource no other writer in America has: The Quad's archive of student reporting from 100+ campuses, ingesting thousands of articles a week. Your job is to find the pattern hiding in that volume and turn it into a story only The Quad could publish.

AI tools, including Claude, are part of the foundational workflow here — not a shortcut layered on top of it. You'll use them to query the archive, surface candidate patterns across campuses, and draft first-pass synthesis before you apply the editorial judgment, verification, and voice that make a piece publishable. This role sits at the intersection of reporting instinct, AI-assisted research, and editorial synthesis — not just writing on assignment, but using these tools to mine a live, national dataset of student journalism for the story underneath it.

Key Responsibilities

•Write 2–5 Quad Originals per week: explainers, cross-campus syntheses, spotlights, and editorials

• Use AI tools, including Claude, to query and mine The Quad archive for national patterns in student reporting across 100+ campuses

• Use Claude and similar tools to generate first-pass syntheses, outlines, or drafts from multi-source archive material, then apply editorial judgment, fact-checking, and voice to bring them to publication quality

• Distinguish between a locally interesting story and one with genuine cross-campus or national resonance

• Collaborate with our editors on the editorial calendar and section coverage

• Credit and elevate the student journalists whose reporting anchors each piece

• Contribute to the weekly digest and launch-window content push

• Maintain accuracy, sourcing standards, and The Quad's editorial voice across pieces — treating AI output as a starting point requiring verification, never a final draft

What Success Looks Like in 90 Days

• A steady pipeline of published Originals across at least four of our eight sections

• At least one cross-campus synthesis piece that demonstrates what only The Quad can see

• A repeatable, AI-assisted process for turning archive queries into story ideas — from prompting and pattern-finding through to a verified, publishable draft

Required Qualifications

• Fluency using AI tools (e.g., Claude) for research, archive mining, and drafting — with the editorial judgment to verify, refine, and take ownership of anything AI-assisted before it publishes

• Clean, fast, voice-driven writing — and the ability to synthesize many sources into one narrative

• Student journalism or early-career reporting experience (recent grads and current students welcome)

• Strong familiarity with U.S. college and university life (student papers, campus politics, culture, athletics, institutional structures)

• Belief that student reporting deserves a national stage and should be treated as primary-source material

Nice to Have

• Experience writing explainers, trend pieces, or cross-source syntheses

• Hands-on experience prompting AI tools (Claude, ChatGPT, etc.) for research or drafting in a professional or academic writing context

• Familiarity with news aggregation, newsletters, or editorial pipelines

• Interest in higher education or media ecosystem journalism

• Ability to articulate why a story matters, not just that it does

Growth & Advancement

This role is an entry point into The Quad's editorial structure. High-performing writers may grow into:

• Senior Staff Writer

• Section lead roles

• Editorial strategy and coverage-planning positions

You'll be helping shape not just individual stories, but the long-term editorial voice of the platform.

Time Commitment

• Part-time, 2–5 published pieces per week

• Workload aligned with the weekly editorial calendar and digest cycle

• Fully remote

How to Apply

• A brief note on your reporting/writing background

• 2–3 relevant work samples (published pieces preferred)

• Any experience synthesizing multiple sources into a single narrative

• Confirmation of availability for 5–15 pieces/month on a rolling editorial calendar