Full-time Multimedia Journalist

CalMatters and Grist seek a reporter to cover the impacts of climate change in California’s Central Valley, a vibrant and diverse community that serves as the nation’s bread basket while sitting at the center of important climate issues.
In this role, you’ll be based at CalMatters, a statewide nonprofit newsroom that wins national awards for investigative and in-depth journalism, and work directly with Grist, the nonprofit, independent media organization dedicated to reporting on climate change. You’ll have the opportunity to tell the untold stories of how climate impacts this critical region and whether the state’s policies – climate-related; water, air, and energy-related – improve outcomes for the people and communities most affected.
And you’ll be mindful of the equity issues that are often at the root of human-based climate stories.
Climate impacts on agriculture, including changing seasonal variations, extreme weather, and pest infestations

• The effect of drought on Central Valley communities
• Extreme heat and its impact on vulnerable populations, including outdoor workers and youth
• Impact of public policy at the local and state level on climate and environment, including, but not limited to:
• USDA or state-level climate policies’ impact on agricultural communities and businesses
• Enforcement of state climate-related laws by the California Environmental Protection Agency
• Extreme weather preparedness funding, policies, and plans
• Energy policy (fossil fuels vs. Financial policies around energy and climate (tax breaks for water- or energy-hogging data centers, for example, or boosting fossil fuels, eradicating tax credits for renewable energy, etc)
• Environmental impact of data centers, fracking, and power plants
• Community organizing around specific climate issues (for example, extreme heat)
• Businesses that are leading community or individual action
• This job will require you to tie policies to the ways they directly impact people in the Central Valley and be able to tell these stories on multiple platforms. Write with depth and nuance about complex environmental and climate issues that have real impact in the Central Valley
• Work with partner organizations to create or adapting content to run in local newspapers and on Grist.Tell stories on multiple platforms, including radio, television, in-person events and social media
• Bachelor’s degree in journalism or a related field, or equivalent experience.
• Demonstrated news judgment, ethics, and creative approaches to storytelling.
• Demonstrated ability to be able to tell a deeply reported, well-written story that includes data and narrative elements.
• Enthusiasm about using journalism engagement practices to serve audiences.
• Demonstrated record of collaboration with colleagues from various perspectives and experiences on team projects, and a desire to be part of a team that values hard work and humor.
• Comfort using a variety of technologies, including content management systems, social media, and project management platforms.
• Ability to respond constructively to feedback and positively engage with collaborative and team-based projects.

This full-time position is represented by the Pacific Media Workers Guild. This role is a co-funded partnership between CalMatters and Grist.
We offer a complete benefits package with medical, dental and vision insurance — we cover 95% of the cost for employees and dependents — from a range of HMO and PPO providers. We also offer paid family leave and will match contributions of up to 4% of your salary to our 401(k) program and provide life insurance at no cost.
We are an expanding and collaborative newsroom, successfully forging a new model for sustainable, intelligent, nonprofit journalism. We do our best to center justice, equity, diversity, and inclusion in all that we do—of which hiring is just one part. We encourage you to ask us about what concrete steps we are taking in service of these ideals. We strongly encourage applicants who are people of color, LGBTQ, and people with disabilities, regardless of national origin, alienage, and/or former incarceration status.
A college degree is not required. CalMatters is an award-winning nonprofit, nonpartisan news venture dedicated to explaining the policy and politics of America’s biggest state and the world’s fifth largest economy. In 2024, we merged with The Markup, a nonprofit national news publication that challenges technology to serve the public good.
We produce vivid, original multimedia journalism, data-driven news analyses and watchdog accountability reporting on calmatters.org, and we distribute our work at no cost to more than 250 media partners. Blacklight, our real-time privacy inspector, has been used over 18 million times and helped journalists, nonprofits, and academics hold tech accountable.
~Digital Democracy, our unprecedented, custom-built AI tool that tracks everything you’d want to know about state legislators has unearthed stories and prompted legislators to call for change.

Grist is a nonprofit, independent media organization dedicated to reporting on climate change. Since 1999, we have used the power of journalism to engage the public about the perils of one of the most existential threats we face. We seek to document the often unequal impacts of climate change on communities in the United States and globally — as well as to show the promise of equitable climate solutions.