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
For further details click here.
