Reporter Intern
Join us in the Summer/Fall as a paid intern and gain practical education and professional experience and have a great time working alongside reporters, editors and visual journalists in our newsroom.
You will work on stories, be assigned a mentor, and hear experts, from the editor to investigative reporters, talk about the ever-changing world of journalism.
Our company: The Modesto Bee is one of 30 news organizations in the McClatchy Company. We’re a Northern California news and information company, providing breaking news and enterprise pieces with our newspaper, website (modbee.com) and other products on different delivery platforms.
We primarily serve Stanislaus County and its environs, and are located in California’s Central Valley. We are roughly two hours from the Bay Area and the beach, and about the same from Yosemite National Park. Our coverage area is diverse, ranging from the hills made famous in California’s Gold Rush to the busy commerce area of the Highway 99 and Interstate 5 corridors. We are an award-winning organization with a reputation for accuracy, fairness, credibility and civic purpose. Our investigations bring about change. Our community involvement touches readers. Our news imperatives bring them information fast and truthfully.
The internship/core mission: Our goals are many. First is to educate and train aspiring journalists in the principles and rigors of their desired profession. Second is to bring new voices to our newsroom to give us fresh perspectives. Third is to put you to work – you will write stories, take photographs and produce videos. You will be called upon to cover everything from high school football games to crimes and fires to elected official shenanigans. Fourth, this can be a tryout. We are surveying and assessing future journalists either to fill jobs or to recommend to our colleagues in other news organizations around the nation. Our interns have moved on to become reporters, visual journalists, editors and publishers.
The program/supervision/support: Our interns are vital and we value them. The program works this way:
- Internships are 12 weeks, full time, and interns earn $12 an hour. Schedule could include weekend hours.
- Interns learn how to cover local news, sports, features and business – and more.
- If they work in editorial (the opinion pages), that stint is the last one in their rotation. We don’t want reporters to work in opinion and rotate back into the newsroom.
- Each intern, while being assigned to a department and responsive to its supervisors, also has a mentor. This is the editor who oversees them, guides them, helps solve problems.
- Intern can work in multimedia as well, creating content and crafting social for digital platforms.
Send resume and clips to Managing Editor Patty Guerra, pguerra@modbee.com. Email and attachments, preferred. Include links to stories, videos, personal websites, resume, portfolio, if available. Put in the subject field -- internship application.
Qualifications include:
- The ability to write quickly, accurately and well;
- Solid news judgment;
- Drive, with an instinctive grasp of what will engage your audience;
- A deep grasp of what drives interest on Facebook, Twitter and other social media platforms;
- A strong entrepreneurial spirit, good curiosity and high energy;
- A collaborative style that works comfortably across teams spread throughout the office and company.
- A familiarity with entry-level video editing platforms is preferred.