The Sacramento Bee seeks an aggressive, enterprising reporter for an opening on its award-winning investigations team. Reporters on this team focus on accountability journalism that is both local and statewide. This is also an opportunity to live in Sacramento, the capital of California and one of the most diverse and fastest-growing communities in the country.
Our journalism focuses on our local communities, and in that role we have the ability to spotlight problems, highlight solutions and truly make a difference — all the reasons you became a journalist. And we are part of McClatchy, a digitally-driven company focused on innovation, with newsrooms in 30 communities in the United States.
The right candidate will have an unwavering sense of justice/purpose and insatiable intellectual curiosity. We want to expose issues that affect the quality of life in the community — and we want to get to the bottom of who is responsible and what could or should be done about it. We want to do all of this with clarity, fairness and impact. It’s not enough to reveal a problem; we want to show in real terms how that problem affects others, often through narrative examples.
You don’t have to have experience as an investigative reporter, but you do need to demonstrate the ability to cover a beat in a way that shows you have an instinct for accountability journalism. This position is not narrowly defined by topic, though being grounded in a particular topic is often beneficial.
We will expect you to understand and use data to help find and drive stories. And we will expect you to aggressively pursue public records.
In this role, you will need to:
- Focus on stories that make a difference, especially those that expose injustice, government waste and corruption.
- Understand the value of visuals, including photos and video.
- Place an emphasis on the audience and consistently adhere to best digital.practices that help ensure your story reaches the most people and helps drive digital subscriptions. .
- Successfully juggle stories of various types, including dailies, quick-turn accountability enterprise and longer-term investigations.
- Work well in a team environment.
The successful candidate should meet the following requirements:
- College degree or equivalent work experience
- A minimum of two years of reporting experience.
- Must have reliable transportation. Must have valid driver’s license and vehicle insurance required (at least minimum insurance required for the state in which the employee works).
- Strong writing skills, excellent news judgment and a demonstrated ability to “see the story” that is going to matter to readers.
- Unwavering commitment to accurate, ethical journalism.
- Ability to build source networks and bring a constant flow of story ideas.
- Ability to work collaboratively to aggressively tackle stories.
- Comfort with a job that will be demanding, fast-paced and constantly evolving.
- Facility with data and public records.
The anticipated base pay range for this position is between $85,000 and $115,000 annually
For more details click here.
