The Washington Post is planning to create a new type of position to expand its local coverage: a "Community Journalist."

According to the letter that Jay Kennedy, VP of labor at the Post, sent the Post's guild, the "primary focus of this position will be to report on stories of local and community interest for the Extras and to perform multimedia work; employees in this position may also report for the daily paper." In addition, the letter says, community journalists should not be expected to be promoted to "reporter," and the base salary would start at $653 per week, or $34,000 a year.

The Post Guild says that this position "sounds a lot like the positions we already have...for a lower wage." Currently, according to the Guild, no reporters earn less than $40,000.

We wrote to Mr. Kennedy seeking clarification and were bounced to a Post spokesperson, Kris Coratti, who explained that "unlike any existing position at The Post, Community Journalists will focus almost exclusively on stories of local and community interest for the Extras and on multimedia work on similar local and community topics."

But, as of the time of this posting, she didn't respond to questions about the nitty-gritty details of the position—

like when you can start applying, should you want to—and didn't explain why the position pays less or didn't come with promotional opportunities.