Insights from Scott Lebar on CSUS Internship Program at The Sacramento Bee
Posting: Thursday, November 17, 2022
In April, the James B. McClatchy Foundation agreed to fund paid newsroom interns at The Sacramento Bee from California State University Sacramento. The project's goal is to provide funding for five students to intern at the Bee to further the ecosystem-building strategies of the Foundation.
Because the newsroom is not as large as other major newsrooms, the students would help expand coverage in areas that don't receive enough attention. The students will be working with the newsroom journalists and faculty to develop strategies that would benefit them later in their careers.
The Bee uses the interns in a variety of different roles such as working as reporters, photographers, opinion writers and online producers. One Long-term goal for this internship program is the hope that these interns would someday land professional jobs at the Bee or other reputable newsrooms.
Scott Lebar, managing editor for the Bee answered a few questions for JFP regarding the program and how the students have been doing so far.
Q. What was the selection process like for hiring the CSUS Interns?
This was a productive collaborative effort between The Sacramento Bee and Sac State, with Phillip Reese, a professor there and part-time writer for us, setting it in motion. Phillip and I discussed what the nature of the internship would be to make sure we provided an opportunity to learn and do journalism. The process involved these steps: I wrote a description of the job prior to the summer; Phillip approved, posted and communicated it to the students; we fielded the applications with a resume, cover letter and work samples; Phillip vetted and made recommendations based on his knowledge of who they are and their work; I interviewed the top-four candidates and selected two.
I worked with them on schedules to accommodate their school and other activities.
Q. Are the stories reported by the interns centered around certain themes, or do they all differ between reporters? (Specific beats vs. general assignment, etc.)
We selected them not only on the basis of their skill sets and potential but also with our targeted needs. So, Alex Muegge, who has a keen background in news reporting, was assigned to help us start our Bee Connected newsletter for Folsom with a flow of news specifically for that community, providing content for our Folsom page. Laura de la Garza Garcia speaks Spanish and has a good sense of feature stories and asked if she could work on La Abeja, our Spanish-language content. Her ambition and our needs intersected.
some of Alex Muegge's latest stories he has reported on. | SacBee.com
Q. What goals do you hope to accomplish from these interns? (Number/types of stories, multimedia packages, etc.)
We have universal and specific goals. We always tell interns they are a member of the staff. We don’t want them to see themselves as interns but as contributing members of our journalism enterprise. So we expect them to participate in the newsroom. They both worked election night, for example, doing stories and compiling results. Even working 15-20 hours per week, we expect three-four stories from Alex for the Folsom newsletter. For Laura, we expect contributions in multimedia (she wants to contribute to our TikTok content), stories in English and Spanish, and a variety of ways to connect to the Latino community.
Q. How important is it to secure an internship to then work in a journalistic career?
I always tell interns: Work here as an intern, and we will get you a job. It’s my way of telling them that this is one of the surest ways to launch a journalism career. They can discern whether this is the career they want; we give them the ground-floor experience to pursue the next steps in working in the world of journalism. Internships afford them the opportunity to do real work and grow, to become polished journalists learning by doing stories and surrounding themselves with accomplished reporters, editors and visual journalists. They learn breaking news, local news and enterprise.
They publish professionally and can show future employers that, yes, they would be good hires and great additions to the newsroom and the community of journalists. Our former interns populate the newsrooms across the country: the New York Times (ie, reporters Ben Mullin and Kellen Browning); the Washington Post (reporters Marissa Lang, Hannah Knowles and Moriah Balingit); the Wall Street Journal (reporter Meghan Bobrowsky); the Baton Rouge Advocate (reporter Andrea Gallo); the Los Angeles Times (Alejandra Reyes-Velarde and Jaimie Ding); CNN (editor J. Freedom du Lac); the Seattle Times (reporter Alexandra Yoon-Hendricks and visual journalist Daniel Kim); the Santa Rosa Press Democrat (Nashelly Chavez); the New Yorker (editor Tyler Foggatt).
Also, being an intern here can lead to a job here. J. Freedom, Alex and Daniel secured jobs in our newsroom. So did current Bee reporters Ryan Lillis, Mike McGough, Beny Egel, Molly Sullivan, Brianna Taylor and editorial board member Hannah Holzer. These are some of the working examples of how an internship can help propel your career.
Q. What are some comments from the current interns about their experience so far?
Alex Muegge said the workload can be daunting – it’s all new, as is the project we launched with him. So he is balancing the hectic schedule of school with the demands of the newsletter.
“It is rewarding. It is a lot, but manageable….Throughout my time in the Sacramento State journalism department, I’ve learned that a beat is something that is doled out to a talented, trusted journalist. Folsom is a location The Bee hasn’t reported on for a while, and I’m happy to begin again on its behalf….I am having a good time.”
Laura De la Garza Garcia said she is enjoying work, looks forward to diving in more to the Spanish language content, and has appreciated working with journalists at The Bee, while she juggles her other school and student news responsibilities. She likes the practical advice. “(I) have received helpful guidance from (AME for Local) Adam Ashton on how to read city documents (and) have received helpful guidance from (visual journalist) Hector (Amezcua) on how to stay connected with sources.”
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Media Contact for the Internship Program: Scott Lebar, Managing Editor | slebar@sacbee.com | (916) 321-1182
Media Contact: Rusty Coats, Executive Director | rusty@jfp-local.org | (813) 277-8959
