Deputy Sports Editor — Buffalo News

The Buffalo News is looking for a deputy sports editor to help lead our team of talented reporters and reinvent sports coverage in a competitive market.


Buffalo breathes sports with the Bills, Sabres, the Big 4 colleges, high schools and outdoors. Our coverage needs to reflect that passion in good times and bad.


The ideal candidate will be self-motivated, able to juggle many responsibilities and committed to new and creative thinking that reflects ambition and enterprise.


While print still matters, our focus is on deeper, compelling storytelling to attract digital subscribers. Key traits include being able to prioritize tasks and allocate resources for the largest impact.


The deputy sports editor must have a track record of success in the digital space and with social media and have an understanding of analytics and audience data.


Experience managing reporters is a must. We want a strong front-line editor who can help generate bold ideas and see them to fruition by working with reporters, photographers and designers in a productive way.


The deputy sports editor will help the executive sports editor reach departmental goals:

* Create informative, entertaining and surprising content every day for print and digital.

* Deepen engagement and brand identity.

* Leverage our expertise and access to newsmakers for exclusive “Only in the News” content.

* Own the marketplace and be ahead of the story.


Despite its Rust Belt reputation, Buffalo is one of the best places in the United States. The city is in the midst of a revitalization, young people are arriving to take new economy jobs and warehouses are being rehabbed into great apartments. (More than 100,000 students attend the region’s 23 colleges and universities.) The city has two professional sports teams, a philharmonic, a growing waterfront, 27 theater companies, a burgeoning medical campus and plenty of attitude. Buffalo also has some of the best summer weather in the world and great summer recreation on our two Great Lakes – Erie and Ontario. Not to mention Niagara Falls, Toronto and ski slopes all within a short drive.


Interested candidates should email a resume and letter outlining how you will help make us better to Executive Sports Editor Josh Barnett at jbarnett@buffnews.com.

 

I have to smile at these job descriptions:

"The deputy sports editor will help the executive sports editor reach departmental goals:

* Create informative, entertaining and surprising content every day for print and digital.

* Deepen engagement and brand identity.

* Leverage our expertise and access to newsmakers for exclusive “Only in the News” content.

* Own the marketplace and be ahead of the story........."

And, meanwhile, we're cutting the staff 40 percent....

 

Fran: I generally respect your views on these boards but you are off base here. Not a single writer or columnist was cut by management or asked to leave. Not one.

We made a few reassignments that we felt better align us for the task at hand: attract digital subscribers. Some of those writers didn’t like their new assignments and opted to take the buyout. In two cases, there was no change to their assignment and they opted to leave, as is their prerogative.

We met with every single reporter and columnist and told them what their role would be. And we did that when they had an option to leave rather than doing it three months from now when they would not get any money or insurance and other benefits.

You don’t know the details of each individual’s personal or family situation so it’s easier to just use a broad brush of staff cuts. That is not what happened here.

And we will be hiring beyond the job posted here. More positions will be posting in the coming days.

 

Well, I guess somebody has to lead the dive into digital-first.



Glad it's not me.

 

One more on the board for The Buffalo News ...

Happy to welcome Steve Trosky, former assistant editor at Land Of Ten, former sports editor of the Richmond Times Dispatch and other outposts to our team.

He joins Rachel Lenzi, Jason Wolf and Jeff Nieburg as our newest additions. We will have a few other announcements coming as well.

Thank you to all who applied for your interest and your patience.

Josh

 

Glad to see you are doing some hiring. But I have to believe there have been severe cuts at the newspaper. This story (below) indicates a 16 percent cut in Guild jobs. Perhaps the story is wrong or sports escaped unscathed.



Buyouts result in painful newsroom losses
Friday, June 8, 2018 by The Guild / News

The Editorial Department of The Buffalo News is expected to lose at least 16 Guild members as a result of targeted and voluntary buyouts that the company made available last month. The loss of so many veteran newsroom staffers at once is deeply troubling to the Guild.

Prior to these departures, the Guild represented 100 members on the newsroom floor, encompassing everyone responsible for reporting, fact-checking, designing and producing the paper, with the exception of upper management.

The buyouts, as they stand, represent a loss of 16 percent of the Guild-represented newsroom staff, and nearly a fifth of staff reporters and columnists.

 

I can address that. Per the Guild, it's 16 people. Roughly eight were tied to print production (copy editors or designers), which was a decision to re-orient priorities. I have made four full-time hires in sports and there will be three full-time hires on the metro desk (not all completed on that side of the room).

In the latest contract negotiations, there was a new classification created of reporters who do digital only work. I have hired one of those in sports, another has been hired in features and another is expected in metro. Those are part-time positions.

It is not replacing everyone in terms of bodies, but it also does not reflect severe cuts, as you suggest, and the new people will generate content.