ESPN

Job Description

Senior Editor

The Senior Editor for ESPN.com Action Sports/X Games, is an experienced digital media editor who manages General and Associate Editors, writers, photographers and videographers to develop and maintain the year-round and event-specific content offering for the website, and for cross-platform and departmental distribution. The Senior Editor should be an action sports participant who excels in ideation for both the mainstream and endemic audiences and who conceives and researches daily news coverage, multimedia feature content, service information and scalable event coverage to be spread across multiple platforms (TV, digital, Mobile, social).
This is a management position, requiring regular, daily communication with the other Senior Editor, Executive Editor and the site’s General and Associate editors, Associate Producer, as well as multisport contributor networks and staff on all sides of the country. The Senior Editor assists in content liaising between action sports and other sections of the website/company.

The Senior Editor will be an experienced action sports participant with extensive knowledge of the athletes, history, tricks, companies and visual communication. The editor is responsible for making judgments on story play and participating in discussions on packaging content into integrated content offerings within Action Sports and X Games franchises, as well as producing features with potential hooks for the ESPN.com front page and action sports index page. The editor will foster relationships with new writers as well as regularly monitor, collect and distribute to the edit staff compelling ideas from other sources, including reporters, photographers, athletes, industry representatives, wire services, social media and other outside sources within the action sports industry.

The Senior Editor is expected to have exceptional writing, reporting and editing skills. They edit copy to meet established tone, theme, style and consistency requirements; they enhance existing material and contribute to building an audience. They work to coordinate comprehensive coverage and breaking news with immediacy and accuracy.

The Senior Editor will be a technically savvy consumer of digital media who frequently peruses other areas of ESPN.com and external websites to increase their knowledge about design, functionality and user interface. They will use the shared resources available to them to enhance the user experience of ESPN.com Action Sports/X Games.
During X Games and other select events, the Senior Editor plays a crucial leadership role in managing a live coverage team and makes important, and sometimes final decisions on all editorial content for the events, including copy, photography, video and promotional support. The Senior Editor leads discussions between dot com, Research, TV Ops, Marketing, Sports and Comp, Programming, Social Media and Mobile to create editorial preview packages and shapes the coverage of the events. The Senior Editor travels to X Games events and manages multimedia content flow and a portion of a stringer team of contributors covering the event, up to 25 people.

ESPN, Inc., The Worldwide Leader in Sports, is the leading multinational, multimedia sports entertainment company featuring the broadest portfolio of multimedia sports assets with over 50 business entities. Headquartered in Bristol, Connecticut, ESPN is 80% owned by ABC, Inc. (a subsidiary of The Walt Disney Company), and 20% by the Hearst Corporation.

ESPN was founded by Bill Rasmussen and launched on September 7, 1979. Now with over 6,500 employees, each year ESPN televises more than 5,100 live and/or original hours of sports programming. The company’s mission is to serve sports fans. Anytime. Anywhere.

Responsibilities
The year-round creative development of original and assigned written, photo and video content -- from conception and pitching, scripting, producing, line and copy editing, photo editing, color correcting, publishing and QAing – based on breaking news, an event calendar and existing and developing franchise offerings. Shaping the agenda for the weekly and event-specific editorial staff meetings, sending out the weekly action sports content budget to a global internal distribution list, sending out programming notes for weekend and on-call editors. Daily programming of the Action Sports and X Games index pages and assistance programming the headline news stack, including working the occasional night, weekend and/or holiday. Coordinating coverage of breaking news to ensure timeliness and accuracy, understanding protocol for reporting legal news and death, identifying news stories of national interest to pitch to the front page. Meeting and exceeding traffic goals for all content and sections. Leading a team or shift through live-event production programming at X Games and other select events, coordinating multifaceted event coverage across platforms, attending broadcast’s daily Senior Production meetings. Formally presenting content initiatives to small and large internal groups, via in-person meetings, video conferencing, webex or conference calls. Working in conjunction with the Associate Producer and site editors to determine the overall video content offering across sports and across the monthly editorial calendar, including volume, tone, duration of clips and availability of resources. Working against an annual PNL and meeting quarterly with Finance to identify budgetary expenditures, tracking invoices for freelance talent and coordinating with the group controller to make sure talent payments are processed on time. Conceiving and pitching sales features and promotional elements for EAS/XG.com to air on broadcast, Watch ESPN, Mobile, app products and dot com. Writing and editing m

Basic Qualifications
Fluency in web authoring tools, SEO and software: CMS, Photoshop, basic HTML, FTP clients, basic video editing, photo editing, Mac and PC operating systems. Fluency in electronic newsgathering techniques, including quickly navigating the Internet. Digital news journalism experience and news judgment; understands assigned sports from a journalistic point of view, and for a mainstream audience. Understands the taste of the ESPN Action Sports and ESPN.com audiences. Experience managing writers, editors or an editorial department. Strong English grammar and excellent organizational skills, particularly as it applies to grammar and syntax. Excellent pitching, news reporting, writing and editing skills. Unparalleled knowledge of the action sports industry, including: athletes, companies, events, trick terms, history, PR reps, agents and currently participates in an action sport. Must be willing to travel, both domestically and internationally, to execute X Games event coverage and meetings, up to six times per year.

Preferred Qualifications
Minimum of 8 years of editorial and reporting experience.

Preferred Education
Bachelors degree or higher preferred in Journalism, Communications or a related field.

Additional Information
Imagine a career with an organization that brings smiles to millions every day. Imagine working with people whose passion for what they do is simply indescribable. We are The Walt Disney Company, live with a rich legacy of innovation, entertainment, and lifelong memories. With our vast array of both businesses and professionals, you’ll have the opportunity to join a team that’s beloved around the world, and to find out how it feels to love what you do. We invite you to discover for yourself why a career with Disney is the opportunity you‘ve been looking for. ESPN, Inc. is an Equal Opportunity/Affirmative Action Employer. Our goal is to create an inclusive workplace for all.

Job ID: 11493BR