Suburban News Reporter

The Wichita Eagle is looking for a high-energy, self-starting and community-minded reporter to cover Wichita’s suburbs. This reporter will be tasked with finding topics that people who live in these growing areas care about, stories that affect their quality of life. Those topics could range from development and education to safety, politics and new places to eat and do business. We are seeking a versatile and resourceful journalist who can dig in, turning in multiple quick stories each week while also pursuing more enterprising angles.

Story ideas will come from getting out in these communities, not just from meeting agendas. The reporter will be open to using callouts and other engagement tools to hear directly from residents about what they’d like to see covered and will use multiple story formats, including service journalism-style explainers and fact checks.

In this role, you will need to:

• Focus on stories that build readership.
• Demonstrate speed and competitiveness.
• Work well in a team environment.
• Live in Wichita or its suburbs.

McClatchy Media’s journalists are expected to take advantage of opportunities to ethically harness and leverage artificial intelligence and other automation to enhance and elevate their work and to find efficiencies that free them to focus on source-building and high-quality, deeply reported journalism.

This beat is fertile ground for a resourceful, high metabolism reporter eager to build a following by publishing often, typically daily.

The successful candidate should meet many, though not necessarily all, of these requirements:

• Strong writing and reporting skills, excellent news judgment and a demonstrated ability to see the story that is going to matter to readers.
• A commitment to accuracy and fairness.
• Ability to work quickly and meet deadlines.
• An interest in telling stories using a variety of media and engagement tools
• A track record for innovation, learning and using new skills and technologies, especially AI
• Ability to understand audience lenses and identify audiences for selected stories.
• Ability to build source networks and bring a constant flow of ideas for stories that will reach a broad audience.
• An understanding of public records laws and ability to file requests pertinent to beat work.
• Comfort with a job that will be demanding, fast-paced and constantly evolving.
• Bachelor’s degree in journalism or similar experience
• 1-3 years of reporting experience in a digital-first environment preferred
• Familiarity/experience with accountability journalism preferred
• Must have reliable transportation. Must have valid driver’s license and vehicle insurance.

The Wichita Eagle, in print and online as  , is the leading and essential source for news, information and commentary in south-central Kansas. In the past several years the work of Eagle journalists has won numerous national and regional awards, including the George Polk Award for Political Reporting, the Carmage Walls Commentary Prize, the Frank

A. Blethen Award for Local Accountability Reporting, the Edward R. Murrow Award and an Emmy for Documentary Program:
Topical.

Our journalism focuses on our community, and in that role we have the ability to spotlight problems, highlight solutions and truly make a difference -- all the reasons you got into journalism.

We are part of McClatchy, a digitally driven company focused on innovation. Here, you will join a team that is fun, collaborative and always looking for new ways to reach readers and tell unique stories.

McClatchy strives to be an employer of choice, and our benefits package is made with this goal in mind. With a focus on health, well-being, wealth and daily life, our package 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. With an excellent support team and with focus on your well-being as a top corporate strategy, McClatchy…