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Form of workThe Opelika-Auburn News, a Lee Enterprises company is looking for a Staff Writer to work in the news department and focus on daily general assignments and enterprise reporting for investigations and special reports. This position will report to the city editor. Duties include writing stories with daily deadlines, news features and profiles, assisting on breaking news stories and completing in-depth enterprise work on a regular basis. This Staff Writer will also appear in videos and podcasts published by the Opelika-Auburn News.
ESSENTIAL JOB FUNCTIONS:
The following are the duties and expectations for Staff Writer position in its mission to inform and inspire its community with important and relevant journalism.
- Produce exclusive, emotionally appealing and accurate stories.
- Do the reporting and take the time necessary to give our community a unique perspective on a story.
- Share stories, photos and links to galleries on professional social media accounts on Facebook and Twitter on every major assignment to promote your work and the company.
- Look for opportunities for video/multimedia and whenever possible report in those ways, to effectively complete assignments from editors by the required deadline.
- Develop and maintain professional judgment in the process reporting and writing.
- Represent the OAN in a professional and courteous manner, and always project a professional image in the community.
- Show up to assignments on time to know what is happening and what needs to happen so you are ready to over deliver.
- Work with photographers to help gather information to best tell the story.
- File stories early from breaking news assignments so they can quickly appear on the company's website.
- Pitch story ideas on a regular basis to editors.
- Establish contacts in the community for stories you are working on and what could be future stories.
- Write all stories so they are accurate and detailed with proper spellings that follow AP & OAN style.
- Keep up with changes in technology.
- Maintain and engage with those who interact with your work on social media.
- Read the Opelika-Auburn News and other news sources to stay in the know on stories, trends and opportunities for future stories.
NECESSARY KNOWLEDGE, SKILLS, AND ABILITIES:
- Ability to follow all company policies and procedures including but not limited to attendance standards.
- Must possess a valid driver's license and must drive to assignments on a daily basis if required.
- Must be computer proficient.
- Must have an intermediate to advanced level knowledge of journalism.
- Effectively utilize time and meet strict deadlines.
EDUCATION AND EXPERIENCE:
- Bachelor's degree, preferably in Journalism, Mass Communications, Strategic Communications or related field or equivalent combination of education and experience.
- Minimum of 2 years of daily newspaper experience or equivalent.
- Must have good computer skills and experience in social media.
Why Join Us?
Lee Enterprises offers competitive wages in a dynamic, interesting work environment with career growth opportunities. We offer an extensive benefit program that can be personalized to your needs. Our benefit program includes medical, dental, vision, short and long-term disability, company provided life insurance and supplemental life insurance. In addition, we offer a 401K retirement plan with company match. We also offer generous paid time off to allow the flexibility to balance personal life and work. This includes paid parental leave for new parents.
Lee Enterprises is a major subscription and advertising platform and a leading provider of local news and information, with daily newspapers, rapidly growing digital products and nearly 350 weekly and specialty publications serving 74 markets in 26 states. Year to date, Lee's newspapers have an average daily circulation of 1.0 million, and our legacy websites, including acquisitions, reach more than 34 million digital unique visitors.
Lee Enterprises is proud to be an equal opportunity employer. We are committed to attracting and retaining a workforce whose diversity reflects the communities we serve. Lee embraces change, and we recognize that we must create and maintain a culture of fervent inclusion. For more information about Lee, check us out at www.lee.net.
We are focused on building a diverse and inclusive workforce. If you are excited about this role but do not meet 100% of the qualifications above, we encourage you to apply.
- Job Family News
- Pay Type Hourly
