Sports Editor, Story Formats & Social

Summary

We’re looking for an experienced, multi-skilled sports editor to help manage, lead and conceptualize The Inquirer sports desk’s new digital story formats. Their idea formulation must be creative, innovative and not necessarily focused on the X’s and O’s. They will highlight sports-adjacent, off-the-field storylines to attract casual sports fans and grow audiences. The job requires a keen sense of storytelling, as well as a firm grasp of audience and voice. Candidates will work closely with assigning sports editors to discern stories that best fit a given story treatment, and aid in producing the story from start to finish. Candidates should be excellent wordsmiths, fast on the keys, and possess superior story idea formulation skills. They should exhibit leadership and superior news judgment and temperament. There will be flexibility to work most shifts from home if desired. Skills in SEO/digital headline writing are a must, as is a commitment to teamwork and journalistic integrity.

What You’ll Do

• Report directly to and work with the Senior Editor, Digital Strategy and Audience Development
• Work closely with the breaking and trending news editors, and night sports editor for reactions, working quickly on viral storylines that would interest Philadelphia sports readers with social media aggregation and writing original content for our audience
• Identify opportunities to both create original content and repackage existing Inquirer sports journalism in new and innovative storytelling formats
• Monitor relevant accounts on X, Facebook, Instagram, etc. for trending and aggregation
• Work with team editors and alerts desk for social amplification of relevant sports stories
• Edit copy for content, style and grammar for publication on any platform
• Publish content on our website, employing strong SEO, effective multimedia display
• Evening and weekend hours will be a regular part of this role, with some holiday shifts and flexibility needed
• Help produce and edit alerts, as well as our flagship Sports Daily newsletter

Who We’re Looking For

• The ideal candidate will have experience working with reporters, acting as both coach and collaborator through the ideation process, from story formulation, revision, execution and final publishing
• The ideal candidate will be a leader and communicator, detail-oriented and a good teammate to writers and fellow editors
• The sports editor must be able to work with writers and assess a story’s art, interactive, multiplatform and packaging potential
• The sports editor will learn all Philadelphia sports teams to edit/assign stories effectively
• The sports editor will also have superior knowledge of national sports storylines
• The ideal candidate will be a skilled wordsmith who can incorporate SEO best practices into compelling headlines and link text
• The sports editor must have multi platform skills in order to coordinate potential projects with multiple departments, from written stories to podcasts, VOD and radio appearances
• This candidate will possess the ability to juggle multiple responsibilities and tasks on deadline