Florida State beat writer - Warchant.com

Warchant.com, the Rivals.com affiliate covering Florida State, has an immediate opening for a sports reporter to cover FSU athletics. The position’s bread and butter is football but responsibilities will also include baseball and men’s basketball team coverage.

The successful candidate will understand the demands of a 24/7/365 web-based work environment and have the proven skill to thrive in all aspects of digital journalism. The candidate will take ownership of the beat with the ability to handle every side of news – game stories, enterprise, features, notebooks and breaking news. The position is based in Tallahassee, Fla.

Please e-mail a resume, cover letter, 6-8 clips and video/multimedia examples to managing editor D.C. Reeves at dc@warchant.com.

NOTE: This is not a recruiting writer position; Warchant.com has a full-time recruiting analyst on staff. However, the successful candidate will assist with recruiting coverage during peak times in the recruiting cycle.

Minimum qualifications:

Education: A Bachelor’s degree in journalism or related field is strongly preferred.
Experience: At least two (2) years of full-time experience at a daily newspaper or sports website. High school or college beat experience is strongly preferred but not required.

To be an ideal fit for this job, you will have:

- Demonstrated excellent reporting and writing skills at a daily newspaper or sports website.

- A working knowledge of college football, basketball and baseball. Knowledge of Florida State and/or ACC sports is a plus.

- Experience with game coverage, features, enterprise, explanatory and breaking news.

- Proven ability to turn around strong, clean copy in a deadline setting.

- The drive, communication skills and self-starting ability to work remotely.

- Schedule flexibility to compete in a 24/7/365 work environment.

- The ability to conceive and execute unique story ideas from start to finish.

- The ability to shoot and appear on video. Knowledge of Final Cut Express is a plus.

- Working knowledge of social media to engage readers and promote content.

- Experience with online-based research and FOI requests.

- The ability to engage subscribers on Warchant’s message boards.

 

And I should mention, if you have any questions about the job feel free to e-mail or post in the thread.

 

I wonder if this is connected to the Clarion-Ledger's Mississippi State position.

 

No, our current beat writer Paul Thomas is leaving for family reasons.

 

Well, I hope everything turns out well for him. I'm sure you'll have some good candidates.

 

Any idea what the pay is like?

 

Not sure if it's still the case since the split with 247, but Rivals.com guys used to be independent contractors. So you could negotiate whatever salary you could get based on your experience level, but you're responsible for your own insurance, expenses, etc.

By the way, as far as web-only team-centric sites go, Warchant is THE model by which they should all be judged and what many of the top ones were patterned after. It was among the first to rise above hacky homer-ism and become a legitimate player in areas other than recruiting.

 

It's not quite that independent -- you're not filling out a 1099. You would be employed by our owner/publisher's LLC. You sign a contract and taxes are withheld. Working at a smaller company, benefits aren't what they would be at a newspaper. Your business expenses for travel, meals, etc. are fully covered.

Obviously pay will depend on experience and I'm not the person making that call, but it will be very competitive given the demands of the position and the minimum requirements.

Hope that makes some sense.

 

Besides having a great name, DC Reeves is one of the great guys in the business.

Good luck to those, who apply.

This is a good job for the right person. Florida State is back as a national contender, and in a serious battle with the Alabama and Alabama schools in recruiting - as well as the usual suspects. But the recruiting battle in south Alabama is really intriguing given FSU's staff, and its ties to Saban & Co.

Living in the Florida Panhandle is a lot more reasonable financially than living in South Florida, and the beaches are some of the best in the nation. My favorite is Destin.

I'm sure you will have a great list of candidates, DC.

 

Great gig if you don't mind never having Saturdays (and most Sundays) off.

 

This is a great gig for someone looking to make the jump from preps to college or from smaller paper to a big-time web site. As team sites go, Warchant is really as good as it gets.

DC is good people, and Warchant's staff already has a good bit of sources at FSU to begin working from, so you won't be swimming alone in the deep end on Day 1. Moreover, there's plenty of opportunity on the beat to do some good work.

Tallahassee isn't the cheapest place to live, but it's cheap enough that you should be able to get by on what this position would pay.

 

Just a heads up, we'll take applications for the rest of the week and then close it off. We appreciate the great response so far.