The Sports Editor will inspire a team of journalists to create impactful enterprise stories and comprehensive coverage of breaking sports news in the vibrant Pacific Northwest market.
The successful candidate will long ago have said goodbye to the game story. We are looking for an editor who understands there is both an accountability component as well as an opportunity to make the experience fun for fans. Tactics employed by this editor will grow digital readership, strengthen engagement and add digital subscribers – all key measures of The News Tribune’s success.
Major readership drivers at The News Tribune include the Seattle Seahawks, the Seattle Mariners, the University of Washington and high school sports.
The position has primary responsibility for sports across McClatchy’s four Washington newsrooms, with a principal focus on The News Tribune and The Olympian, and also the Bellingham Herald and Tri-City Herald. This means taking a lead role in what we cover and how we shape that coverage, as well as how we use our resources to share the best possible sports offerings for sports communities across the state.
The Sports Editor will lead staff in proactively breaking news, elevating day-to-day coverage and identifying compelling enterprise that drives loyalty with readers. She or he will succeed by being a strong coach.
This editor also will contribute to the region’s print team, assembling print plans from multiple newsrooms so designers can effectively execute on your plans.
Collaboration across newsrooms and with the growth team, print designers, visuals and video teams and others is vital, as is effective teamwork with colleagues in advertising, product development and audience.
ESSENTIAL FUNCTIONS
- Use analytics tools to determine the effectiveness of strategies and revise as needed to achieve audience goals.
- Guide reporters, videographers and editors through the editorial process.
- Coach and mentor staff for improved performance and progress on individual skills, career goals and newsroom and News Tribune priorities.
- Determine if it is possible to broaden audience for a specific story and how; what form of storytelling would be most likely to succeed in reaching the target audience; how the piece itself should be shaped to speak successfully to that audience; how the headline and social media share text should be written; what keywords will maximize search; what distribution platforms to use; whether and how to update published content to maximize readership; and whether and how to “move the story forward.”
- Teach reporters to think and work in an audience-centered way.
- Ensure colleagues understand not just the methods being used but the purpose behind them.
- Work closely with the News Tribune executive editor.
REQUIRED EDUCATION AND EXPERIENCE
- Excellent journalism ethics.
- At least 3 years of experience as a manager and/or leader in sports journalism.
- Fluency with analytics and how to apply them.
- A proven record of driving readership growth.
- Experience promoting content through major aggregators.
- Comfort with a job description that is more outcome-oriented than task-oriented.
- Skill =and versatility as an editor and a writer, including the ability to shape everything from breaking news briefs to longform magazine-style pieces in a way that best serves and engages the broadest possible audience.
- Excellent news judgment, and a demonstrated ability to “see the story” that is going to matter to readers and to anticipate reader interests before they exist.
- Ability to say no when stories are too incremental, lack value or otherwise don’t meet our standards.
