Sports Editor - Fort Worth Star-Telegram at McClatchy in Fort Worth, Texas

Job Description:

The Fort Worth Star-Telegram seeks an ambitious, audience-obsessed editor to lead our stellar team of sports journalists in one of the most competitive, fast-paced and high-profile sports markets in the country. 

This is not the traditional sports editor position of days gone by. We are looking for an innovative digital leader who will push us forward with urgency, enthusiasm and creativity to serve our targeted audiences with the sports content they want, need and can’t get anywhere else.

Our newsroom is highly collaborative across all teams, and that’s how we approach our sports coverage. This editor works closely with other news, visuals and audience leaders on strategies that drive coverage from a sports perspective. Your top priority is to meet the needs of our audiences, whether they are suburban North Texas families who have funded high school  stadiums that could pass for college venues, or core Fort Worth residents who bleed purple for the TCU Horned Frogs on Saturdays (and curse Jerry Jones on Sundays) during football season.

The successful candidate will be an unquestionably digital-first thinker who has demonstrated  the ability to lead a team away from traditional game coverage in favor of breaking stories and producing vital enterprise, engaging features, insightful commentary and impactful accountability journalism. This is how we stand out in a crowded digital news space.

The editor will also contribute bylined stories and columns to that mix and should be comfortable assisting in editing work from other newsroom teams at times.

This position plays a crucial part in coaching reporters to put our readers at the center of everything we do. The editor will discuss every story idea with the reporter through the lens of an audience and determine how the story should be shaped to serve their needs. When necessary, the editor must be the one to reject ideas that do not fit McClatchy’s mission of providing unique, differentiated content that matters to our readers.

The measures of success in this role include expanding our readership, subscriber retention and other engagement-related analytics, as well as adherence to McClatchy’s mission pillars

ESSENTIAL FUNCTIONS:

• The editor must have the highest journalism ethics and sound judgment; extraordinary skills as an editor.
• The editor will embrace the strategic use of SEO, social media strategies and video and focus on identifying, growing and retaining digital audiences with content that readers will see as essential.
• Skill and versatility as an editor and a writer, including the ability to shape everything from breaking news to long-form magazine-style pieces in a way that best serves and engages the broadest possible audience.
• Sound news judgment, and a demonstrated ability to “see the story” that is going to matter to readers and to anticipate reader interests before they exist.
• An interest in and aptitude for storytelling using a broad range of media, including the written word, video, photography, audio, and whatever comes next.
• A commitment to understanding issues and topics the sports team reports on.
• A deep understanding of and enthusiasm for the digital news ecosystem.
• A firm grasp of the art and the science of reaching digital readers through search, headline writing, social media and other distribution channels.
• A complete commitment to defending the values of the First Amendment.
• Holding leaders and institutions accountable and speaking truth to power.

SKILLS AND DEMONSTRATED ABILITIES: 

• To consistently find and frame stories that resonate with subscribers and the largest possible audience.
• To write compelling headlines and relevant SEO metadata that will help the stories reach that audience.
• To use social media platforms such as Facebook, X, and Instagram to engage with audiences. 
• To use analytics such as page views, time on site, referral sources, subscriber pageviews, and return visits to help determine which stories resonate with which audiences.
• Ability to say no when stories are too incremental, lack value or otherwise don’t meet our standards. 
• Ability to act as a proxy for our readers, asking the questions they want answered.
• Understanding of metrics, and the ability to discuss with reporters what they mean.
• The ability to collaborate with the newsroom’s leadership team and with colleagues throughout the newsroom.
• Strong editing and/or writing skills and excellent news judgment.
• Strong interpersonal skills, including empathy (toward readers and staff) and a superior ear for tone.
• Comfort with a job that will require flexibility in its work schedule and be demanding, fast-paced, constantly evolving, and more outcome-oriented than task-oriented.

EDUCATION AND EXPERIENCE:

• Bachelor’s degree in journalism or related field preferred.
• Two years of leadership experience in a web/analytics-focused sports news environment preferred.

The newsroom you’ll join is deeply committed to listening to, engaging with and meeting the needs of our neighbors throughout the Fort Worth metro area. Keen news judgment, strong communication skills and the ability to collaborate with colleagues – both local and across our company – are musts. 

At the Fort Worth Star-Telegram, we pride ourselves on breaking stories and producing impactful, accountability-driven journalism that serves our community. We’ve exposed the lies of politicians and uncovered abuse in organizations that serve our most vulnerable children, holding the powerful to account and sparking real change.

Fort Worth is one of the fastest growing cities in the country and is the 12th largest city in the United States. Its population is diverse, with about 35% of the population Hispanic or Latino, over 18% Black and about 5% Asian, according to the U.S. Census Bureau. The Star-Telegram is committed to better representing the diverse North Texas communities we cover and to building an inclusive newsroom for staffers of all backgrounds.

Fort Worth is a vibrant city with a rich cultural heritage, world class art museums, and an array of unique restaurants, events and recreational opportunities. Whether you’re exploring the Cultural District, downtown or the historic Stockyards, you’ll find that the Fort Worth area offers a high quality of life and a front-row seat to compelling stories.

To apply, include a persuasive cover letter, your resume and six examples of a diverse digital portfolio of your work and your staff’s best work that you personally planned and directed.

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Salary/Compensation: $80,000 - $100,000 per year

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