Sfgate Sports Reporter
Hearst Newspapers
San Francisco, CAThis was removed by the employer on 6/22/2021 1:15:00 PM PST
Not to worry we have many other jobs on the site;
Browse all jobs
Browse the Sports Category
Browse the Writing Category
Search for Sfgate Sports Reporter jobs in San Francisco-CA
Search all Sfgate Sports Reporter postings
Full Time Job
SFGATE Sports Reporter
Why SFGATE?
Launched in 1994, SFGATE.com was one of the first large-market media sites in the world and served as the exclusive digital home of the San Francisco Chronicle for 19 years. In 2019, the Chronicle (which can now be found online at the paywalled sfchronicle.com) and SFGATE officially became two separately run entities with their own editorial staffs and independent newsrooms.
Today, SFGATE is a digital-only publication that reaches more than 28 million readers every month and tells the stories of the people, places and ideas that make San Francisco, and the Bay Area at large, the weird and wonderful place that it is . We help readers navigate their day, whether it's by keeping them updated on big breaking news, guiding them to interesting local experiences or sharing a part of the Bay they haven't seen before.
The site is home to seven verticals: Culture , offering a unique mix of the entertainment news you actually need, and the underground stories from hidden corners of the Bay Area you want ; Local , the premier destination for everything that life in San Francisco encompasses (from wildly expensive real estate to schools to what it's like to live above a raucous bar); Sports , covering the intersection of sports and culture; Travel , covering everything from flight deals and travel news, to hotel hacks and under-the-radar day trips ; Commuting , where we keep you up to speed on all things BART, Muni, and Caltrain, on and off the tracks; Food Drink , where we tell you the backstory of the people behind the bar and in the kitchen; and News , plus has satellite editors covering Lake Tahoe , California Parks , Hawaii and Disneyland .
Your Impact:
The ideal Sports Reporter will be a versatile journalist with a deep understanding of sports in general (bonus points for having an equally deep understanding of Bay Area sports, but not necessarily required) and enough intellectual curiosity to pursue stories that matter to both the people who love Bay Area teams and the people who only casually follow them. You'll toggle between fast-paced daily stories and well-sourced, deep-dive features that remind readers there's more to sports coverage than simply game recaps, box scores and YouTube clips. The sports reporter won't be sitting in a press box or standing around a locker room. With rare exceptions, you also won't be writing up an analysis of a player's performance. We're not interested in the traditional avenues of access - we're aiming for a unique type of coverage and voice. You'll be working on the same team as SFGATE's regular sports columnists, Drew Magary and Rod Benson, both of whom excel at connecting sports to everything else. We want to hire a reporter with the same instincts, someone who will dig deep, who's prepared to report critically on powerful sports institutions and figures, and will find angles that fans didn't even know mattered to them.
What you'll do:
• Consistently have ideas - you'll be given a blank canvas to tell stories that matter across a broad range of sports and sports-adjacent topics. You need to have a constant stream of ideas to paint this. We are absolutely not looking for someone to write game recaps and sidebars. What we are looking for is someone who can apply ambitious creativity to sports journalism. That might mean submitting a Freedom of Information Act to learn more about a COVID outbreak at the Golden Gate Fields racetrack, or searching FEC filings to better understand how the billionaire owner of the San Francisco Giants is wielding political power. It also might entail spending a day with an A's fan-favorite like Banjo Man and chatting about his illustrious career, or interviewing a group of teenangers about their hidden mountain bike course that the city of Berkeley wants to demolish.
• Be autonomous - this position comes with a lot of trust to meet deadlines, understand analytics and communicate with the copy desk, photo department and illustrators. You have to be able to do all of these things, and do them well.
• Be consistent - not only is this an idea-heavy job, it's a writing-heavy job. We want someone who can move the audience with their features and give them smart, bite-sized sports news items to keep them informed throughout the week.
• Find emotional connections - we don't want a feature story on Kyle Shanahan. Everyone has already written features on Kyle Shanahan. We want a feature on the burger bar near the 49ers' old practice facility that gave away free food to players and staff after every win in the '80s. We don't want a statistical breakdown on why George Kittle is the best player in the league. We want you to camp out at the Santa Clara Panda Express that Kittle visits every Monday and see what non-media availability George Kittle is like. We don't want a story about the Raiders new stadium in Las Vegas, we want one on the groundskeeper who has been responsible for transforming their old stadium back and forth between the A's and Raiders for most of his adult life. We want ambitious journalism, not press conference transcriptions.
Who you are:
• You have 1-3 years of relevant experience writing and editing at a publication or in a digital media environment
• You're based in the Bay Area or willing to relocate once it is safe to do so
• You have a deep knowledge of the region that spans beyond a single discipline
• You have a passion for journalism and telling stories
• You've read SFGATE and have an understanding of the brand and voice