Sports reporter (columnist?) - Tulsa World

Job Description

Summary: Cover the Oklahoma sports scene in a factual, creative, and entertaining manner in the newspaper, online, and on various social media. Write multiple weekly articles, blog, and keep readers updated with sports news and insight. Serve as a public face for the Tulsa World and the Tulsa World sports department at public speaking engagements and on television and radio as needed.


Essential Duties and Responsibilities include the following. Other duties may be assigned.

1. Write stories weekly about sports in Oklahoma.
2. Blog regularly for tulsaworld.com.
3. Post story links, blog links, commentary and interact with readers regularly on Twitter.
4. Must be able to use a variety of writing styles, from short opinion pieces to long-form storytelling.
5. Must be comfortable writing about a wide variety of topics, from national championship college football games, to minor league sports, to high school events.
6. Must be able to develop sources and be willing to contribute reporting to breaking news coverage in a variety of beats.
7. Represent Tulsa World in public speaking engagements throughout northeast Oklahoma, as well as on radio and television
8. Must have a Facebook and Twitter account.
9. Build relationships, share stories, and gather information using social media accounts.
10. Respond to questions raised in the comments fields of a story posted on the website.
11. Reply to questions or engaging conversation on Facebook in the comments fields of stories that have been posted on our Tulsa World pages or your individual page.
12. Reply to questions and engage in conversation through Twitter.
13. Share links via social media to stories and other information the audience may find interesting.
14. Reply respectfully to emails when readers, sources, or others have questions.
15. Share story links through email with sources with goal for sources to share within their network.
16. Check voicemail and reply to questions in a timely fashion.
17. Manage voicemail so that mailbox is always clear to accept voicemail from readers and sources.
18. Must be proficient in shooting, editing, and uploading video to NDN or any other platform Tulsa World is using.
19. Must upload video from all breaking news situations.
20. Must provide video from coverage of any live event including meetings, games, etc.
21. Demonstrate strong interpersonal skills through interaction with all areas & levels within the company.
22. Present a professional and helpful behavior and attitude at all times.
23. Ability to react to change effectively and productively and handle other essential duties as requested.
24. Maintain and contribute to the team environment.
25. Complete special assignments and other tasks as requested by management.

Required Skills

1. Must be self-motivated, flexible, and work well with other sports staff members
2. Must possess a valid driver’s license.
3. Critical ability to meet deadlines.
4. Excellent interpersonal, communication and professional presentation skills.
5. Strong administrative and organizational skills.
6. Ability to work under pressure and within the established goals and objectives.
7. Ability to work well with others in close environment.

Required Experience

1. Bachelor’s degree from a four-year college or university, preferable in journalism or sports
2. Five years experience daily in a newspaper as sport staff
3. Must have good computer skills and experience in business social media

Reporter - Sports - Tulsa, Oklahoma, United States - BH Media

 

Glad they limited it to only 25 "essential duties and responsibilities." Otherwise this job ad might have become long-winded.

 

"Hi, I'm Earth have we met?"

 

It's an HR thing. They have a way of turning the most mundane parts of the job into a scary-sounding bullet point.
For example, "Contrubute to the team environment" really means "don't be an asshole, don't microwave fish in the break room, help out in a pinch if we need you to cover an important news story, and answer a question if one of your co-workers asks you."
Basically, if you read any of those 25 items and don't feel like you can do it, you need not apply — at the Tulsa World or for almost any other reporting job. All 25 of those things are fundamental skills. Some of them are fundamental human skills.

 

And some are duplications.

3. . . . interact with readers regularly on Twitter.
8. Must have a Facebook and Twitter account.
12. Reply to questions and engage in conversation through Twitter.

 

Is there any more clarity on whether this is indeed a reporter position - or for a columnist?

 

Tulsa has an has an open columnist position, but I believe it's filling from within. This will likely be for an OSU or OU beat spot.

 

Thanks!

 

No.26: Must be willing to live in Tulsa or the state of Oklahoma in general (dealbreaker to weed out candidates).

 

If you thought the job requirements were long, wait till you get to the application. I feel like I put the same information in different forms at least 10 times.

 

It makes you wonder what the point of making an actual resume is.

"Damn, let me put 6 hours into making this resume so I can copy it word for word into a lengthy web form!"

 

Whoever gets this will be covering my niece and nephew, both championship athletes, as is their older sister, who is taking her talents to Stillwater.