The Sacramento Bee seeks a versatile, high-energy journalist to join our team as a Local Engagement and Retention Reporter. This is a newly created position designed to serve our existing loyal readers — and attract new ones — through a mix of reporting, vertical video production, event organization and staging, and developing new ways to promote our journalism — plus the newsroom personalities who produce it.
As 2026 unfolds, we’ll be creating two-way conversations with our subscribers about their news needs and how we can better serve them. Our Local Engagement and Retention Team will be at the heart of this strategy, from organizing live and virtual events, to creating pop-up newsrooms in Sacramento and surrounding communities, to using technology to answer members’ questions and shape future coverage.
And, yes, we’ll take risks, doing more of what works and eliminating what doesn’t, as these roles evolve.
At The Bee, our journalism focuses on our local communities, and in that role we spotlight problems, highlight solutions and truly make a difference — all the reasons you got into this business. And we are part of McClatchy Media, a digitally driven company focused on innovation, with four other newsrooms in California and 25 others in the United States. All McClatchy Media journalists are expected to take advantage of AI to enhance their work and find efficiencies that free them to focus on source-building and high quality, deeply reported journalism.
Ninety miles northeast of San Francisco and 100 miles southwest of Lake Tahoe, Sacramento is a vibrant capital city with a Mediterranean climate, a world-class cultural scene and numerous recreational opportunities, including the 31-mile American River Trail and 2,000 acres of parkland in the city alone. Our Bee office in East Sacramento lies within two miles of the Capitol, Midtown, Downtown and Golden 1 Center. Living in Sacramento or in several neighboring communities offers a high quality of life and a front-row seat to compelling stories.
In This Role, You Will Need To
- Report and write local journalism that serves the information needs of our subscribers, including newsletter writing and production, and writing stories or shooting video related to newsroom outreach events. Some conventional reporting shifts might be assigned, depending on the newsroom’s needs on a given day.
- Plan, execute and sometimes be the face of community events and outreach programming. These can be live events, or ones hosted on webinars.
- Work with editors and reporters to leverage the content they produce in different ways, including alternative story formats, and create additional connection points with subscribers. Think “5 takeaways on The Bee’s investigation into X,” or “Everything to know about the new mayor,” or creating photo and video packages designed to hook occasional readers and then get them to read more.
- Use all available analytical tools to help inform newsroom editors on coverage decisions that best connect with local readers and subscribers.
What You'll Bring
- A degree in journalism or related field;
- Two years of experience in a digitally oriented newsroom environment is required;
- Strong writing and reporting skills;
- The ability to shoot basic photos and videos in the field;
- Solid news judgment and excellent journalism ethics;
- Understanding of SEO and other optimization opportunities and a demonstrated ability to learn new skills in social and digital;
- Ability to correctly identify audiences for selected stories;
- A strong entrepreneurial spirit, deep curiosity and high energy;
- A collaborative style that works comfortably across teams spread throughout the office and company;
- Ability to work comfortably in a job that will be fast-paced, data-driven, shaped constantly by feedback and experimentation and always evolving.
- A track record for innovation, learning and using new skills and technologies, especially AI
If you’re nimble, comfortable with change, and not afraid to take risks, we hope you’ll apply.
To do so, please submit a persuasive cover letter, your resume, and four to six examples of your work.
The anticipated base pay for this position is between $24 and $28 an hour, up to 37.5 hours per week. Individual base pay may vary within that range depending on job-related knowledge, skills, experience, and relevant education.
What We’ll Bring
As a journalist at McClatchy, you’ll join a supportive, flexible, collaborative team. McClatchy strives to be an employer of choice, and our benefits package is made with this goal in mind. With a focus on well-being and daily life, options include healthcare coverage for employees and their families, financial protection from expected and unexpected expenses, multiple no-cost wellness resources and even coverage for four-legged friends.
Our overall benefits package also includes a 401(k) with employer match, competitive paid time off and corporate holidays, and a variety of mental health benefits. For more information on McClatchy's benefit plan, please visit McClatchyLivewell.com.
About The McClatchy Media Company
The McClatchy Media Company features a portfolio of vibrant and trusted news, lifestyle, entertainment brands and a robust retail distribution network. Our iconic local news brands such as the Miami Herald, The Kansas City Star and The Sacramento Bee, have collectively earned a total of 57 Pulitzer prizes and are complemented by popular lifestyle and entertainment brands such as Us Weekly and Woman’s World. Together, our brands reach more than 100 million unique visitors a month,The McClatchy Retail Network, our distribution and logistics arm, offers delivery to more than 56,000 retail locations weekly.
