Southern California sports reporter

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Gannett Co., Inc. (NYSE: GCI) is a diversified media company with expansive reach at the national and local level dedicated to empowering and enriching communities. We seek to inspire, inform, and connect audiences as a scalable, growth focused media and digital marketing solutions company. We endeavor to deliver essential content, marketing solutions, and experiences for curated audiences, advertisers, consumers, and stakeholders by leveraging our diverse teams and suite of products to enrich the local communities and businesses we serve. Our current portfolio of trusted media brands includes the USA TODAY NETWORK, comprised of the national publication, USA TODAY, and local media organizations in the United States, and Newsquest, a wholly-owned subsidiary operating in the United Kingdom. Our digital marketing solutions brand, LocaliQ, uses innovation and software to enable small and medium-sized businesses to grow, and USA TODAY NETWORK Ventures, our events division, creates impactful consumer engagements, promotions, and races. Gannett open roles are featured on various external job boards. When applying to a position at Gannett, you should be completing an application on Gannett Careers via Dayforce. Job postings directing you to complete an application on other external sites may not be valid. To connect with us, visit www.gannett.com


The USA TODAY Network is seeking an experienced sports writer to cover Southern California and deliver impactful, essential journalism with modern techniques across multiple mediums.
We need a self-starter who has the stamina and vigor to attack the biggest story of the day, every day. An ability to consistently identify what moves the needle in pro, college and the very best in high school sports is needed to succeed in this role.
The ideal candidate will balance writing breaking news with supreme urgency with the demand of delivering thoughtful analysis and deeply reported enterprise to become a mandatory source for Southern California sports news and information.
This candidate will be comfortable being on camera to concisely analyze the news with precision and clarity, especially on vertical video. Broad expertise in the players and personalities who drive interest is a necessity to cover Southern California sports.
The USA TODAY Network is the nation’s largest news media organization, consisting of more than 200 properties, including USA TODAY. The candidate will work collaboratively with fast-moving teams across the enterprise to help achieve the company’s goal of becoming the dominant sports news source in the country.
This is a salaried position, based in Southern California, with competitive benefits and pay.
Responsibilities:
• Create smart, thoughtful, engaging, content in a variety of formats to rapidly grow audience on USA TODAY and other network sites.
• Master best practices for maximum reach on search / social and commit to getting content to top of Google carousels.
• Stay on front lines of what's buzzing Southern California sports to disseminate quick responses on trending topics.
• Engage readers every day, including written, video and social media content.
• Track performance and be comfortable in an environment of constant adjustment to reach performance goals.
• Display creativity in everything from developing fresh content to writing SEO-friendly headlines to sharing content socially to having an eye for images and video.
• Own the opportunity to execute strategy, make massive audience gains and work in a fast-moving and highly rewarding journalism environment.
Requirements:
• Reside in Southern California, within reach of prime sports action.
• College degree in communications, journalism, marketing or related field or equivalent combination of education and experience.
• 3+ years’ experience as a sports journalist, with focus on fast-paced digital content production and multimedia expertise.
• Understanding of various news and information content management systems.
• A history of collaboration, innovation and goal achievement.
• Proven ability of maximizing readership by anticipating news, researching trends and delivering news in a variety of story forms.
• Exceptional social media and engagement skills.
• Ability to write with accuracy and precision.
• Excellent communication and time-management skills.
• Approachability, personal charisma and a commitment to staff.
• Understanding of the changing sports media landscape and ability to adapt strategies that address continually changing market and consumer needs and desires.
• Strong competitive instincts and intellectual curiosity.
Application Instructions