Beat Writer Jobs in Florida (NOW HIRING)

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.

Key attributes for success:

• Be the source of sports information in Collier County and the greater southwest Florida area.
• The ability to report and write compelling stories that serve our existing audience and helps attract new consumers
• Timely budgeting is a must for digital and print planning. Presto packages must be created as soon as a story in assigned by an editor or conceived by the writer with slugs, budget lines and Presto IDs added to the Herald-Tribune story budget.
• Passionate about getting the information to the audience first, and excited about using all the various platforms to connect with audience including video and social media.
• Adjust, adapt and suggest best practices to help the company achieve audience, engagement and revenue goals.
• Meeting all deadlines assigned by editors and planners and understanding digital and print have different deadlines for content. Reaching deadlines allows editor and planners to optimize content’s reach on multiple platforms including digital, print and social.
• Self-starter with the ability to develop relationships through in-person interaction, phone calls, text messaging and social media.
• Understanding the collaborative nature of journalism and willing and eager to work with others to benefit our regional and statewide coverage and its audience.

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. 

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 experiencepreferred; 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. 

How to Apply: 

We are eager to learn more about you and how you fit this role. When you apply, don’t limit your upload to a resume; show us what you’ve done. To do so, put together a single document file that includes the following, in this order: 

• Your resume – one to two pages.
• A cover letter that outlines how you would approach the job.
• Links to 3-6 online samples of your work. Show us what you’ve produced or had a hand in that best reflects what you can do in your desired role. 

It is important that these items be assembled into a single document and uploaded in PDF format. Completing these steps will ensure that your application receives the highest consideration. 

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