On Thursday we took a look at jobs with Gawker Media, a blog network that recently sold off a few blogs. One of the blogs that they sold off is one of my absolute favorites – The Consumerist, a blog about consumers’ rights. The reason that they sold off the blog wasn’t that it was unpopular, it was that it was nearly impossible to make profitable because of the need to not show impropriety through relationships with advertisers. Luckily for Consumerist fans everywhere, a perfect solution came about with the purchase of The Consumerist by Consumers Union, the non-profit publisher of Consumer Reports. Although Consumers Union isn’t a typical non-profit, they do an amazing job of providing regular people with the information that they need to make informed purchases.

No Conflicts of Interest at Consumers Union

One of the most impressive and telling things about Consumers Union is their No Commercial Use Policy:

We accept no advertising and we are not beholden to any commercial interest. Our income is derived from the sale of Consumer Reports and other publications and information services, and from noncommercial contributions, grants, and fees. Published information from Consumers Union, including our Ratings and Reports, is intended solely for the benefit of our subscribers and other consumers, in order to help them make informed choices and decisions about consumer products, services, and other consumer matters. Such information may not be used by others in advertising or to promote a company’s product or service.

That quote pretty much sums it up about Consumers Union. They’re all about protecting consumers, and they don’t let anything get in the way of their mission. If you’re interested in consumer protection, then there are few better places to start your career than Consumers Unnion. A look at their Jobs page shows that a number of job openings that might interest new grads who are looking for work. These include: Media Relations Associate (Washington, DC), Administrative Assistant (Washington, DC), Technical Specialist – Online Advocacy (Austin, TX), Web Applications Programmer (Yonkers, NY). You can apply for each of these jobs directly from the specific job descriptions that we’ve linked to above. We don’t know of any jobs with The Consumerist, but maybe there will be some in the future.

Links to Help You Begin Your Research

• ConsumersUnion.org
• ConsumerReports.org
• Jobs at Consumers Union
• About Consumers Union
• Consumers Union’s History
• Consumers Union’s Senior Leadership Team
• The Consumers Union Annual Report
• How Consumers Union Tests
• Take a Tour of Consumers Union’s Labs

Do you read Consumer Reports or The Consumerist?

We've identified Consumers Union as having career opportunities in the following categories:

• administrative
• all employers
• communications
• New York
• non-profit
• public relations
• software development
• Texas
• Washington DC
• web development

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Jobs Near You

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One response to “Consumers Union”

1. Jessica says:

   February 7, 2009 at 8:00 am

   Huh, didn’t know Consumer Reports bought The Consumerist. I haven’t visited that blog is a while, I guess. I love Consumer Reports and even subscribe to the Web site so that I can research just about anything consumer-related.

   Reply