The Mississippi Clarion Ledger/clarionledger.com, part of the USA TODAY NETWORK, is looking for a Mississippi sports editor dedicated to developing talented journalists in a fast-paced, digitally focused environment while also providing an authoritative and thoughtful voice for our sports audiences. The Mississippi sports editor will be based in Jackson, Mississippi, and serve as an assistant sports director for the USA TODAY NETWORK’s South Region.
The Mississippi sports editor oversees coverage of four college teams (Mississippi State, Ole Miss, Southern Miss and Jackson State), high school sports in Mississippi and Fort Smith, Arkansas, and ongoing enterprise projects.
The USA TODAY NETWORK’s South Region also includes Alabama, Louisiana, and Tennessee.
Our coverage is built on digital storytelling and mobile consumption. Our sports editor will focus on building the best digital platform for sports coverage in the country. This includes real-time reporting, smart analysis, video champions, deep storytelling and social engagement.
Responsibilities:
- Execute tactics on growing subscriptions through storytelling, topics and headlines.
- Promote our brand, content and personalities across social media; plan and execute live event coverage on social media; and coordinating initiatives that involve fan feedback, contests or other engagement efforts.
- Ensure posts are high-quality talkers and timed to meet people’s needs and take advantage of multimedia such as polls, texts, slideshows and video.
- Create, track and communicate key social engagement metrics.
- Keep track of sports buzz and what’s trending across social platforms.
- Create smart, thoughtful, engaging, sophisticated content in a variety of formats to help grow audience.
- Provide leadership on developing audiences on social media and emerging social platforms.
- Display creativity in everything from developing fresh content to writing SEO-friendly headlines to sharing content socially to having an eye for images and video.
Requirements:
- Bachelor’s or master’s degree in communications, journalism, marketing or related field or equivalent combination of education and experience.
- 2- 5 years’ experience as a respected sports journalism leader, with focus on digital content and multimedia platforms.
- Experience in high-level decision-making with complex, impactful or sensitive news content.
- Advanced understanding of various news and information content management systems.
- A history of successful leadership, collaboration, innovation and goal achievement.
- Demonstrated change leader who collaborates and communicates effectively with diverse peoples and personalities.
- Demonstrated record of leading a coverage team, including remote writers.
- Proven history of guiding strong watchdog, enterprise and features work across multiple platforms.
- Strong social media skills.
- Understanding of best uses of live and recorded video and how to inculcate video skills throughout the team.
- Ability to work well on deadline.
- Ability to write with accuracy and precision.
- Excellent communication and time-management skills.
- Approachability, personal charisma, comfortable with public speaking and a commitment to staff.
- Understanding of the changing sports media landscape and ability to adapt strategies that address continually changing market and consumer needs and desires.
- Strong competitive instincts and intellectual curiosity.
- Ability to effectively manage and coordinate in an environment of accountability.
- Track record in recruiting a highly successful sports journalism team.
- Command of media law and Principles of Ethical Conduct.
