Sports Reporter

USA TODAY Co. • Naples, FL

1d • Onsite

About The Position

The Naples Daily News, part of the USA TODAY Network, is seeking a reporter to join our sports team to create impactful stories in Collier County and the rest of the southwest Florida area, on a strong high school sports scene, professional golf and other topics of interest as they arise. This position requires someone who thinks digital first and will focus on the USA TODAY Florida Sports Network’s audience, engagement and revenue goals. Multimedia skills including the ability to produce and edit video and engage audience on social media, especially Facebook, Instagram and X, is a must. The candidate must be comfortable analyzing and interpreting metrics to help make coverage decisions and use SEO techniques to drive audience through Google and search engines. The reporter must build sources, break news, create top-shelf enterprise and tell compelling stories for our digital audience and to fulfill our Sunday Project BluePrint goals. This position will focus on making high school sports, especially football, into a mandatory experience for local and statewide fans, both on and off platform. This writer will play a leading role in strategy development and identifying innovative techniques on the beat. Those techniques include but are not exclusive to rankings, athlete and team of the week polls, players lists and all-area teams. The writer will work with the USA TODAY Network Florida team to grow coverage throughout the state including with polls, recruiting and trending stories. The writer must also be adaptable to handle other duties assigned by an editor as well as adjust to initiatives and strategies and implement them as they are introduced by management.

Requirements

• A valid driver’s license, reliable transportation and the minimum liability insurance required by state law
• Bachelor's or master’s degree in communications, journalism or related field preferred or equivalent combination of education and experience.
• Previous reporting experience preferred; even better if you've covered sports.
• Proficiency on social media platforms; including but not limited to Facebook, Twitter, Instagram and TikTok.
• Experience shooting and editing photos and video on a mobile device.
• Strong communication skills, news judgement and headline-writing ability.
• Ability to multitask and excel under intense deadline pressure.
• Ability to work collaboratively and efficiently.
• Strong writing, spelling and grammar skills; familiarity with AP style.
• Ability to work nights and weekends.
• Comfort building a beat and communicating with athletes and coaches.

Responsibilities

• Create storytelling that accurately informs, entertains and engages specific audiences and platforms through the use of metrics.
• Work toward becoming the community’s leading voice of expertise in high school sports.
• Connect with the community through storytelling and outreach (social media, on camera, forums, community leadership, etc.). Provide thoughtful analysis of complex issues.
• Work with editor and content strategist to evaluate what's working and what's not and develop ongoing plans to satisfy audience needs.
• Collaborate to provide appropriate elements for stories (i.e.photos, videos and graphics).
• Capture basic photos and video as needed.
• Promote personal brand, the brands of colleagues and the institutional brand.
• Provide great customer service, helping readers find answers and solutions.

What This Job Offers

• Job Type: Full-time
• Career Level: Mid Level
• Education Level: Associate degree