Sport Reporter - Rugby and Cricket

Remuneration:	negotiable cost-to-company
Location:	Johannesburg, Industria West
Education level:	Diploma
Job level:	Mid
Own transport required:	Yes
Travel requirement:	Often
Type:	Permanent
Company:	The Citizen

City: Cape Town or Johannesburg

The Citizen is seeking to employ a general sports reporter, with a focus on rugby and cricket, within the editorial department, in Cape Town or Johannesburg, reporting to the head of sport.

The position will require the candidate to work for print and digital platforms and will involve sub-editing and content-loading administrative tasks.

Purpose of the job:

To cover sports events assigned by the Head of Sport and to write accurate and well-written sports stories for daily publication in The Citizen’s sports pages and website and up-to-the minute content across all digital platforms.

Main responsibilities:

• Production of accurate and well-written sports copy for both the daily newspaper and the website.
• Manage your own daily diary, and pitching unique story ideas, with creative angles, ideas, proposals and elements.
• Create, publish, and promote multimedia content, working independently as well as with the multimedia team.
• Liaising with photographers about specific events.
• Monitor and effectively use social media to pick up news leads and story ideas, as well as promote your work.
• Gathering of news from a variety of reliable sources.
• Covering important events/issues timeously.
• Establishing a network of contacts.
• Contribute on the production side of both print and digital.
• Maintaining of good relationship with colleagues.
• Staying up to date with privacy, contempt and defamation laws.
• Adhere to Code of Ethics and Editorial Standards and Practices.
• Monitor analytics to maximise all stories and articles published on citizen.co.za.
• Adhere to Google algorithm requirements and write with SEO and Google search in mind.
• Study and adhere to The Citizen and citizen.co.za’s voice and style guide.

Knowledge/experience:

• Bachelor’s degree or diploma in journalism.
• Wide knowledge and passion for sport, in particular sound knowledge of rugby and cricket.
• Three years’ relevant experience in a similar position.

Skills:

Full knowledge of:

• MS Office Suite (Word, Excel, PowerPoint), Outlook.
• Excellent people and relationship-building skills.
• Knowledge and understanding of digital publishing platform WordPress or similar platform.
• SEO best practices and digital publishing.

Attitude:

• Ability to work accurately and efficiently.
• Excellent communication skills and an ability to work individually on a project or in a team environment.
• Deadline driven.
• Innovative and independent.
• High degree of professional Journalistic conduct.
• Proven journalistic track record.
• Knowledge of media and publishing law
• Excellent writing skills and ability to create editorial and multimedia content.

Other requirements:

• Valid driver’s licence.
• Own reliable vehicle.
• Solid references.
• Required to work on weekends, public holidays and nights, as this is the nature of Sports.

 

Posted on 19 Jun 11:58, Closing date 31 Jul