Service Journalism Reporter

McClatchy is seeking a collaborative, reader-focused reporter to join our award-winning newsroom of The Kansas City Star.

The position is based in Kansas City, Missouri, and is part of our service journalism team, whose mission is to help local readers navigate life and news in the region. The journalist will write for the Kansas City Star news site, kansascity.com.

This service journalist will report and write to answer reader-submitted questions, dig into local curiosities and issues, use engagement tools like Google Trends to identify local or state topics with high interest, and contribute to projects and breaking news coverage.

This reporter must be ready to move with agility when the news demands. The successful candidate for this position will be able to take assignments and pitch ideas. As such, this reporter must have good time management skills and be organized.

Experience with audience growth and engagement tactics such as digital headline writing and SEO is a must. Expertise in a particular subject area is not required, but the successful candidate will bring a deep understanding of what’s important to local readers and be curious and motivated to write about new topics every day.
We have fun, and we write on the news. Here are just a few of the team’s stories:

KC area hospital sees more COVID patients. What to know about new variants and booster
Going to Beyoncé in Kansas City? Here’s what you can bring inside Arrowhead Stadium
A rare ‘ring of fire’ solar eclipse is coming. How will it look from Kansas and Missouri?

The Star has served the Kansas City region since 1880. Our journalists are known for holding institutions and officials accountable, and consistently providing news that matters to the daily lives of community members.

What you'll bring:
In this role, you will need to:

Have strong writing and reporting skills, as well as excellent news judgment and journalism ethics.
Think about our audiences first and always, with a commitment to tactics that grow readership and community engagement.
Have a passion for the written word as well as video, audio and graphics.
Demonstrate speed, competitiveness and SEO savvy through aggregating and storytelling tools.
Work well in a team environment.
Data reporting experience is a plus.

Preferred education & experience:

College degree or equivalent work experience.
At least 1-3 years of reporting experience.

When applying, include a persuasive cover letter, your resume and four to six examples of your best work.