California Economic Mobility Reporter

The Sacramento Bee is seeking an ambitious journalist who can develop exclusive reporting on a defining issue for California: inequality and economic mobility.

Even before the pandemic, millions of Californians struggled to pay their bills. Housing, rent control, homelessness, and providing workers a living wage dominate the agendas of Gov. Gavin Newsom and the state’s most powerful lawmakers. The labor unions that represent many low-income workers are an active force in the Capitol.

We’re looking for a journalist to break stories on how policymakers are creating conditions for working-class people to emerge from the pandemic with a better future. This is an opportunity to deliver coverage that interprets actions at the Capitol and holds elected officials accountable for their political promises and actions affecting the world’s fifth-largest economy.

This reporter will bring an enterprising and solutions-focused approach to this beat, shining a spotlight on public-policy issues and writing about and for the struggling workers in California whose voices often are not heard. This journalist will combine real people with data-driven reporting, elevating policy discussions and highlighting opportunities to provide California workers with a more secure financial future.

The successful candidate will have a demonstrated commitment to fairness and accuracy, in fact and in tone, and a strong grounding in journalism ethics. Like all McClatchy journalists, the reporter must have demonstrated the desire and skills to build audience loyalty, engagement and growth around compelling public service journalism. 

At The Sacramento Bee, the reader comes first, last and always. Serving readers in a crowded media marketplace means becoming the best and most relevant source of journalism that matters to them – and ensuring that our work reaches them, wherever they are. This will require a keen understanding of what’s important to readers, developed through reporting on the region, extensive use of audience analytics, and a constant awareness of what people are talking about on social media. 

It will require not just the ability to build sources and ferret out facts, but also a talent for framing, writing, producing and promoting a story via search and social media to ensure that it reaches and resonates with our readers. It will require a demonstrated commitment to change – constantly adapting to the ever-evolving ways in which readers seek out and interact with our journalism. And it will require enthusiastic participation in conversations about what’s working and what’s not, and an equally enthusiastic commitment to adapting accordingly. 

Requirements:

• At least 2 years of reporting experience

• Strong writing and reporting skills and excellent news judgment

• Unwavering commitment to accurate, ethical journalism

• Demonstrated ability to use social media platforms to reach and engage with audiences

• Fluency in the science of readership and engagement, including an understanding of how to use analytics such as page views, time on site, referral sources and social shares to help determine which stories resonate with which audiences

• Skill in telling stories using a variety of tools and platforms, including capturing and editing video

• A demonstrated ability to learn new skills and technologies, including content management systems; social media platforms; video editing software; and analytics and storytelling tools

• Excellent interpersonal skills, including empathy and the ability to take and give constructive criticism

• Ability to flourish in a job that will be fast-paced, data-driven, shaped constantly by feedback and experimentation

• 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)