Senior Sports Reporter

Report and write stories for the Hartford Courant and Courant.com, with a focus on UConn women’s basketball and the state’s WNBA franchise, the Connecticut Sun. The senior reporter will be among the most sophisticated and experienced reporters in the newsroom, bringing particular expertise and knowledge to their coverage areas and able to create the most compelling content the newsroom has to offer. Senior reporters will develop, report, analyze and create original news and feature stories in text and other forms, including, when appropriate, video, audio, podcasts, Facebook Live events, simple graphics, etc.

What you will do:

Being fast and accurate: Always strive to provide readers with what we know, when we know it; be transparent about sources of information

Employing creativity every day to conceive of stories, produce or secure visuals, get sources to cooperate, corroborate facts and present information to readers in the most relevant, interesting way

Bringing particular expertise and knowledge to coverage areas

Maximizing audience engagement with the site through use of various storytelling formats, including photo galleries, video, aggregation and a variety of layouts

Creating premium news and features content that is among the newsroom’s most compelling work- strong on grammar, punctuation, clarity and accuracy

Taking the initiative to fact-check, run background checks and confirm information before publication

Delivering on time with minimal to moderate supervision and editing

Cultivating beats, where appropriate, and sources

Promoting themselves, their work and the Tribune through social media, in broadcast media and at live events

Uncovering and proposing exclusive stories on newsworthy events and trends

Conceiving, creating, editing, aggregating or producing various types of content. Depending on the department, this may include videos, maps, timelines, multimedia, documents, graphics, photo galleries, gifs and social aggregations

Taking or securing photos and making basic videos and making them available in the content management system

Measuring performance of one’s own digital content through audience engagement metrics and working with audience team develop tactics and strategies to build audience

Working with data and visuals teams, as appropriate, to deepen reporting and produce data-visualization content items

Participating in production videos and live streaming with visuals department, as appropriate

What you will bring:

Professional-level grasp of proper grammar, spelling, punctuation and the ability to write accurately, with clarity, without bias

Knowledge of libel laws and adherence to the Tribune’s and Editorial’s codes of ethics

Strong work ethic, entrepreneurial spirit and competitive instincts

Ability to multitask and perform in a fast-paced deadline driven environment

Ability to work independently when required while at the same time operate efficiently in a team dynamic

Up-to-date skills on various digital platforms

Familiarity with current events and newsmakers

Basic familiarity with analytics and ability to translate data into tactics and strategies, including ability to use metrics from Chartbeat, Adobe Analytics, social and other tools

Knowledge of Facebook, Twitter and other social platforms and ability to develop/follow best practices for social

Basic knowledge of SEO best practices and ability to research SEO and appropriately populate fields and headlines

Willingness to work evenings/weekends, long and irregular hours and travel when necessary