The Sporting News is hiring a Deputy Editor to lead its North America newsroom coverage and direct a multisport content strategy for live and tentpole sports events.
Managing a team of content producers and editors, this role is responsible for shaping our ideation around breaking news and trending topics within The Sporting News’ SEO-driven mission to explain the sports world. The successful candidate will have a deep understanding of search user trends, impeccable news judgment, and a sharp instinct for developing stories that answer questions fans want to know beyond the box score.
On a daily basis, you will be focused on monitoring the news cycle across a multitude of sports, tracking SEO keywords around those topics, and optimizing our stories for increased search engine visibility and traffic. At the same time, you will need to be a diligent planner who is constantly thinking about long-term strategy and projects weeks or months in advance. Those planning responsibilities include maintaining tentpole budgets, setting the weekly editorial schedule and assigning staff for live coverage.
The Deputy Editor will also play a leading role in ensuring the overall quality of our website — looking for ways to strengthen stories, improve copy and build the best user experience across our platforms.
This role is remote and reports to the Assistant Managing Editor, News and Operations.
Responsibilities
- Identify, assign and program articles for search and push notifications
- Edit written content for accuracy, style and grammar, as well as working with the team on effective headline writing
- Comprehensive SEO planning, editing and writing, including keyword research for evergreen topics and tentpole events
- Coach SEO best practices with content producers and editors
- Analyze search trends and keyword data to inform coverage decisions
- Maintain tentpole events calendar and budgets
- Line manage staff of content producers and editors across a range of career levels
- Manage affiliate links and ensure success of commercial partnerships
- Help develop ways to enhance user experience beyond text with embedded graphics, stats and other multimedia
- Ideate with other writers and editors on tentpole plans and special projects
- General site management across U.S. and Canada editions, including push notifications and occasional newsletter production
Qualifications
- 5-plus years of editing experience in digital sports media
- Experience managing people is preferred
- High-level understanding of SEO concepts and best practices, and how to utilize them to shape content strategy
- Mastery of writing clean, concise copy that explains to readers what is happening and why
- Sharp and creative news judgment instincts to discern interesting content from noise
- Adept at writing engaging headlines that stand out — and how to make a boring one better
- Strong editing skills to improve a story, and the coaching skills to explain why those changes were made
- Comfortable working under pressure and communicating remotely in a fast-paced news environment
- An eye for smart data, graphics and other visual ideas to enhance storytelling
- Flexibility to work nights, weekends and holidays as necessary
- Expertise in most major North American sports, and a willingness to learn others outside your comfort zone
Benefits Include
You’ll receive up to 15 days of paid annual leave (from the start), 10 paid sick days, and 10 paid holidays, affordable health benefits (dental and vision included), generous sick time package, competitive parental leave, short and long-term disability paid by the company, basic life term insurance and personal accident insurance paid by the company, 401(k) and flexible work environment.
About Sporting News, The Company
The underlying ethos of Sporting News is positivity and passion for sports. To help drive those tenets, we have three core objectives:
- Create the best media experience for sports fans. Wherever you are in the world, whatever device you choose, we want Sporting News to offer the best fan experience possible through the creation of quality, interesting content.
- Develop a work experience that people want to be part of. We want to identify talented, motivated staff who work hard, enjoy their job, support their team… and have fun while doing it.
- Build a fantastic, growing business. We want to deliver for our brand and our partners while achieving our commercial goals, ultimately using our scale for good.
Sporting News, we celebrate the diversity of our employees and our leadership. Sporting News is an equal opportunity employer, and all qualified applicants will receive consideration for employment without regard to race, color, religion, sex, national origin, disability status, protected veteran status or any other characteristic protected by law.
About Sporting News, The Brand
One of the world’s most iconic sports brands, The Sporting News was founded in 1886 as a weekly U.S. newspaper. Later transitioning to a magazine, it became the dominant sports publication, acquiring nicknames like "The Nation's Oldest & Finest Sports Paper" and "The Bible of Baseball."
Sporting News is now a dynamic digital publisher offering a trusted perspective across multiple sports and topics all over the world. It features localized editions in the U.S., Canada, Mexico, U.K., Australia, India, Japan, Spain, and Argentina, with more territories and languages across the world.
TIMELESS & CRAFTED. No publisher has the heritage of The Sporting News (TSN). Established in 1886, it became the essential source for baseball and boxing content.
IMAGINATIVE & SCALABLE. Fast forward to today, TSN now covers all major sports worldwide with 15 local editions, leveraging a global network that understands local market nuance.
RELIABLE & RELATABLE. With a historic, trusted brand and unprecedented local media knowledge, TSN will be the leading international sports portal for right holders, gaming partners, advertisers, broadcasters ... and most importantly, fans.
Acquired by an international investment group in 2021 with deep sports, media and gaming experience, TSN is poised to become the first truly global digital sports media platform business.