Two high school reporter jobs in Southwest Florida

The News-Press in Fort Myers, Fla., has two high school jobs open. The job titles are reporter and columnist but the positions have similar duties. These two reporters will also work together to coordinate coverage of local high schools with little oversight by a content coach so organization and strong communication skills are a must.
If interested email reporterjobs@news-press.com.

High school sports reporter: The News-Press Media Group is seeking an aggressive sports reporter to cover and own high school sports in the competitive Southwest Florida market. This reporter will need to be audience-focused, data-driven, independent and entrepreneurial, executing daily multimedia stories/content about high school sports news, players, performances, topics game coverage and trends in Lee and Collier counties. The reporter will serve as the No. 1 most trusted expert when it comes to high schools sports in the region and should be first on news-press.com with breaking news stories as well as consistently generate trend stories and enterprise worthy of A1.Strong candidates for this position will be digital savvy and must engage with readers through platforms such as social media, digital chats and comments about high schools sports news in Southwest Florida. Also, to be successful in this position the reporter will need to take full advantage of audience metrics analysis and tools to help develop beat coverage priorities, as well as promote and market his/her content and connect with the high school sports community at events and in other unique and entrepreneurial ways. The schedule is flexible with night and weekend work required. This reporter should collaborate with other sports reporters and the content coach to ensure that content generation for digital and print sports pages is planned and produced in a manner that ensures a steady flow. The reporter will participate in public appearances and appear on television, online video programs and radio to help build the reporter’s brand and The News-Press sports brand. This person will work with the high school sports columnist to coordinate coverage by freelancers and part-time clerks to handle prep calls.

High school sports columnist: This position is The News-Press’ expert and personality on high school sports. The high school columnist will focus on providing a unique perspective on high school sports, exclusive commentary on the latest trends and issues and strong analysis. This person will focus on delivering high-value digital content including breaking news, entertaining features and enterprise stories that provide insight, analysis and opinion on everything from high school football season to National Signing Day – and less on game stories. But some game day coverage is part of this job. Watch for trends or social issues that will generate user conversation. Strong candidates for this position will be digitally savvy and must engage with readers through platforms such as social media, digital chats and comments about high schools sports news in Southwest Florida. Also, to be successful in this position the columnist will need to take full advantage of audience metrics analysis and tools to help develop beat coverage priorities, as well as promote and market his/her content and connect with the high school sports community at events and in other unique and entrepreneurial ways. This columnist should collaborate with other sports reporters and the content coach to ensure that content generation for digital and print sports pages is planned and produced in a manner that ensures a steady flow. The reporter will participate in public appearances and appear on television, online video programs and radio to help build the reporter’s brand and The News-Press sports brand. The schedule is flexible with night and weekend work required. This person will work with the high school reporter to coordinate coverage by freelancers and part-time clerks to handle prep calls.

 

Who got laid off to create these jobs?

rb

 

No one. With the shifts of jobs in our newsroom of the future they became open. We had 4 sports positions, we added one - the HS columnist job - and one guy by his own decision moved to a watchdog role out of sports. That gave us two openings. Not saying good people in the room didn't lose jobs, but not off the sports staff.

 

To ask questions others might be left with after reading the ad: (1) are you seeking certain levels of experience and (2) are you seeking sportswriters with local roots or willing to take on someone from another region?

 

Ed, I'm thinking the same thing. Check your PM if you see this.

 

They don't have to be local. I can think of our last 5 news reporter hires have all been from out of state. And that's in the past year or so. And having to coordinate coverage and plan takes some degree of experience. You need to know what you're doing. Not to say a young person couldn't. And the pay range is also competitive based on experience.

 

I'm beginning to change my opinion of Gannett and the way they've handled their personnel. Maybe its a good thing to have to reapply for your job, or for the company to bring in fresh blood. At my paper, we have a guy who's been there 10 years. Started as a writer, moved up to Sports Editor just by sticking around. He's allowed to mess up as much as he wants, miss deadlines and just be all-around bad at his job, but they won't make a change because of his seniority. I would welcome a chance to be at a paper where there was some accountability and people who've won awards and work harder get a spot over someone who's just simply been there.

 

Yea, accountability is about 6,984th on the list of why Gannett acts the way it acts.

 

Making a change because somebody's screwing up, I get. I don't get making people who have done their job and done it well for 20-plus years and are universally acclaimed by players, coaches and everyone else re-apply for their job. That's just wrong in my opinion and that's what happened in Nashville.

 

And I'm in the Army, where accountability is the absolute No. 1 thing that gets drilled into your brain. I get accountability. I don't get making people who have done their job well for a long time have to re-apply for their jobs or get axed all together.

 

You're probably right. I guess its just the two extremes of the spectrum. Deserving people forced to jump through hoops at one company. Undeserving people getting handed things at another. Honestly, I don't know which situation is better.

 

This. It's up to management to weed out the non-performers. It's not on me to prove I am worthy of keeping a job that I have done very well for almost 20 years. And if I only BELIEVE I've done it well, and nobody's told me otherwise in those many years, that's on the management as well.