GANNETT’S GROOVE

USA Today Unveils New Beyoncé Reporter: ‘I’m a Beyoncé Stan’

The paper had announced its Taylor Swift reporter last week.

A week after a fluffy profile in Variety announcing Gannett’s new Taylor Swift reporter led to online ridicule, the media giant is trying again. The newspaper company unveiled its new Beyoncé reporter, Caché McClay, in a Rolling Stone profile on Monday, where she said she could put aside her love for the pop icon in order to properly cover her. “I do want to make clear I’m a Beyoncé stan, but my point in saying that was mainly to maintain my integrity as a journalist,” McClay told the magazine. “That’s what this role is—to report on Beyoncé, but making sure that I am unbiased with certain issues or certain things.” McClay was previously a producer at TMZ, which she joined after a stint at BBC News. She also said the position wouldn’t be to appease the BeyHive, Beyoncé’s famously hyper-zealous fan base. “As a reporter, the job is to highlight and unpack what’s going on,” McClay said. “I am a fan, but also the point of this job is not to just appease a fan base.” McClay will work out of The Tennessean’s newsroom alongside Swift reporter Bryan West and will circulate her pieces throughout the USA Today chain of papers.