Sacramento Service Journalism & Food Reporter

The Sacramento Bee seeks a creative, hard-working service journalism reporter to join our newsroom, a role that includes quick-turn coverage of our region’s vibrant food and restaurant scene. 

The Sacramento Service Journalism Team — in tandem with the California Service Journalism Team — provides our McClatchy Media audiences in Sacramento, the rest of the Central Valley and along the Central Coast with the answers they need to help them navigate daily life. These can be explainers on breaking news, Q&As, fact checks, or stories that celebrate and support local engagement, including “price checks” or “On A Budget” features that explore dining and other experiences people can do for under $25. 

Expertise in a particular subject area is not required, but this job has a focus on restaurant openings and closings, hyperlocal dining options and restaurant guides, and grocery industry trends. This reporter will collaborate with our food and dining reporter, who has his fingers on the pulse of what Sacramentans and Northern Californians want to eat, as well as our farm-to-fork reporter, who is tracking how economic conditions drive what ends up in restaurants and on people’s plates. 

Our service journalists are expected to write at least two stories a day on average. Besides food, the successful candidate might also jump in on entertainment, weather and retail reporting on a given day.

All McClatchy Media journalists are expected to take advantage of opportunities to ethically harness and leverage AI and other automation to enhance and elevate their work — and to find efficiencies that free them to focus on source-building and deep reporting that results in high-quality journalism.

Bottom line: We have fun writing off the news and covering a little bit of everything. Here are just a few of the Sacramento and California Service Journalism teams’ stories:

• Placer County wine tasting and charcuterie for only $25? Here’s where we tried it
• Meet the Botts Dot. It’s probably saved your life at some point in California
• Save and Splurge: Where to get sushi in Davis with — and without — a budget
• Sacramento-area homes sales plummet. Expert says economic uncertainty drove drop
• What can I recycle in the Sacramento area? Check out our guide
• Here’s how long you can live in California on $1 million in retirement savings
• Want $42,000 a month in CA? Here are 9 of highest-paying state jobs available

In this role, you will need to:

• Use tools such as Google Trends, Reddit, Nextdoor and reader-submitted questions to surface and answer questions readers are asking. 
• Pitch stories that are off the beaten track and will resonate with readers across our region.
• Report and write stories quickly in user-friendly formats.
• Find questions the community is asking and determine the answers.
• Collaborate with other journalists from across the newsroom on major news events.
• Demonstrate versatility and initiative.
• Work in a team environment, both virtually and in person.

Must have:

• 1-3 years of reporting or writing experience.
• A college degree or work equivalent.
• Residency in the Sacramento region — or the ability to move here before starting the job.
• Strong reporting and writing skills.
• Flexibility and speed in writing to respond to evolving news events.
• Excellent news judgment and journalism ethics.
• Excellent communication and collaboration skills.
• Must have reliable transportation. Must have valid C