The Bay Area News Group (Mercury News/East Bay Times) is seeking a Golden State Warriors beat writer for our Oakland office. We need an experienced sports journalist who is able to provide quick analysis in an hour or less as well as deep-dive enterprise suitable for our digital and print platforms. Our journalists work in real time, publishing words, sounds and images around the clock for millions of online readers and hundreds of thousands of people who read our daily newspapers. A large part of this job will also be staying on top of breaking news on the beat, getting the facts out within a half-hour of it breaking and coming back to the story with more in-depth reporting later. In one 24-hour period you will cover a game, detail the breakout performance of a much-lauded rookie, and offer an analysis of the team at mid-season. The next off-day, you might work with our graphics and photos staff on a longer enterprise piece or. All the while you’ll be watching the metrics that communicate the reaction of your online audience to these various pieces, and adjusting your approach in real time.
Essential functions:
- Provide concise, accurate game coverage minutes after the buzzer rings.
- Write hard-hitting analysis
- Produce compelling feature stories on and off the court
- Write and post quick takes, and provide regular weekly content that readers will come to rely on like weekly mailbags
- Regularly travel with the team, work nights and weekends
- Build relationships with the team to bring in exclusive content and/or breaking news
- Meet deadlines
- Communicate with your supervisor and colleagues regularly
- Monitor your metrics and adjust your audience engagement strategy as needed
Competency and skills:
- Deep knowledge of the NBA and basketball
- Three or more years experience as a working journalist
- Strong writing skills under deadline pressure
- Ability to juggle multiple stories of varying complexity
- Strong grammatical skills and a working knowledge of the Associated Press stylebook
- Proficiency at using social media to report stories and to share them
- Deep knowledge of local sports teams, past, present and future
- Ability to find and develop sources within the organizations
- Solid sports news judgment
- Excellent communication skills regardless of the platform (i.e. in-person, Slack, Zoom, email, texts, etc.)
- Attention to detail and organization
- Ability to work harmoniously with other departments (i.e. audience, photo and print production teams)
Please send your resume and clips to sportsgigs@bayareanewsgroup.com
