High School Sports Reporter

Advance Media • Portland, OR

6h • $58,500 - $68,500 • Hybrid

About The Position

The Oregonian/OregonLive in Portland, Oregon, is seeking a High School Sports Reporter with passion and flair for writing about high school sports and student-athletes. This role is crucial for building community connections through sports storytelling. The reporter will join a high-producing and award-winning Sports staff and is expected to become an expert on local sports teams, players, and coaches. The position requires thriving in a fast-paced environment and embracing experimentation with various content forms, with a strong emphasis on growing digital subscribers by responding to breaking news, publishing scoops, and delivering smart content in diverse formats. This includes covering games, writing about student-athletes, and producing in-depth season previews, rankings, lists, reader polls, and award coverage.

Requirements

• Bachelor’s degree in journalism, communication, or a related field; or an equivalent combination of education and experience
• Minimum of 2 years of reporting experience
• Good news judgment, ethics and story instincts
• Ability to write on deadline
• Urgency when covering breaking news
• Ability to juggle multiple stories at once
• Familiarity with the Oregon sports landscape
• Strong organizational and communication skills
• Ability to work nights and weekends based on sports schedules
• Comfort working in a hybrid environment
• A commitment to reflect underrepresented communities in sports coverage
• Willingness to use AI and reader metrics to maximize audience reach

Nice To Haves

• Experience producing social media, newsletter and video content is a plus.

Responsibilities

• Covering the nearly 300 high schools around Oregon, writing and reporting the best stories about their teams and athletes, including game stories for important matchups, features about student-athletes or in-depth stories about elite players
• Delivering scoops and chase breaking news with urgency, including off-field issues. This includes actively monitoring social media for news, as many student-athletes share updates there first
• Delivering frequent installments of high-interest stories, including previews, rankings, lists, polls and awards across many sports, with a particular emphasis on football
• Monitoring the Oregon School Activities Association, the governing body that oversees policy, classification and districting changes and also regulates issues involving improper conduct
• Working collaboratively with sports editors to identify coverage priorities and communicate efficiently on progress or obstacles
• Reporting and writing stories independently, sometimes on tight deadlines
• Identifying and pitching features or investigative stories on sports trends for consideration and assignment by editors
• Developing strong working relationships with information sources such as coaches and athletic directors

What This Job Offers

• Job Type: Full-time
• Career Level: Entry Level