In America, say, chief journalist is retiring (9)
I believe the answer is:
stateside
'in america' is the definition.
(I've seen this before)
'chief journalist is retiring' is the wordplay.
'chief' becomes 'state' (I can't justify this - if you can you should give a lot more credence to this answer).
'journalist' becomes 'ed' (short for editor).
'retiring' says the letters should be written in reverse.
'ed'+'is'='edis'
'edis' back-to-front is 'side'.
'state'+'side'='STATESIDE'
'say' is the link.
Can you help me to learn more?
(Other definitions for stateside that I've seen before include "In the US" , "in America" .)