Senior Editor Investigative Unit

The ESPN Investigative Unit, which sits within the company’s Investigative and Enterprise Unit, is dedicated to the mission of crafting deeply reported, multidisciplinary and carefully edited investigative stories and profiles, news breaks, and special projects on the most vital figures and topics in sports. This type of journalism carries outsize complexity alongside notable risk – not only in terms of execution and the standard legal concerns with any type of investigative journalism, but also the unique circumstances of doing this work at ESPN, which counts as business partners the many people, organizations and leagues often targeted by this work. While executing the work and distributing this work through ESPN’s digital platforms, the team collaborates closely and manages these projects alongside and with oversight of creative counterparts on ESPN’s TV, Films, podcast, and social teams to bring its stories to the widest audience possible.

The senior investigative editor supervises and collaborates with the company’s most-experienced investigative reporters – who are experts in their fields -- to create, develop and manage content for the ESPN Investigative and Enterprise Journalism Unit, for publication on the ESPN App, website, and distribution across all of ESPN’s platforms. The senior investigative editor assigns and edits various short and long-form articles, and contributes to the conception, assignment, and line editing of stories. The editor should excel in ideation, conceiving of and conducting preliminary research for story ideas and special projects. During the reporting process, the editor will use an in-depth understanding about how to prosecute stories alongside the investigative reporter and producer, conducting further research and problem-solving to help reporters, as necessary, find answers to critical questions. The editor should also recognize the value of social media platforms for content distribution. This is a management position, requiring regular communication and seamless collaboration with other senior editors and top editors across newsgathering departments, along with writers and contributors; fostering relationships with new writers; distributing first drafts of features to top edit staff and gathering editorial comments and directives; and collaborating with content partners across digital, TV, podcast, and other ESPN platforms to bring our stories to life. In addition, the senior investigative editor understands the broad needs of the business as the editor interacts with the company’s legal department, top executives, and communications staff as the work produced in this unit is of such uniqueness and seriousness that it requires extraordinary communication and oversight. The senior investigative editor should have extensive knowledge of libel, defamation, invasion of privacy, and public records law, as this editor is often a last-line of defense for some of the company’s most legally sensitive work – work that not only can bring the company industry acclaim but also put it in legal jeopardy to the tune of 10s of millions of dollars. This editor often must advise and work toward solutions with senior management in other company divisions and with leaders multiple layers above this level, including SVP and higher executives.

Responsibilities:

• Direct feature-length investigative stories from conceptualization and assigning to line editing and distribution.
• Be able to very effectively communicate complex ideas and circumstances: The editor must be able to anticipate the needs of executives as this unit navigates producing work that can appear damaging to a business partner; the editor needs to be able to confidently deliver timely, factual communications to multiple constituencies, understanding the sensitivities of strategic business relationships while upholding the company’s journalistic principles.
• Closely track and identify emerging trends, issues, subjects, and topics within sports, then apply advanced ingenuity, creativity, and journalistic and organizational skills to help shape assignments.
• Manage a small team of veteran investigative writers, maximizing their creativity, productivity, and growth.
• Coordinate staffing assignments, editorial resources, and process.
• Coordinate with legal department on sensitive stories.
• Be able to balance the pursuit of excellence in journalism and deliver on it in the unique ESPN business environment.
  • Be able to discern what, how, and when to communicate with senior executives and other department leaders when the journalism effort is in the lane of affecting business partners.
• Collaborate with design, product and technology managers on presentation and site enhancements.
• Recruit, hire and develop talented new voices that contribute to all of ESPN’s platforms.
• Maintain proficiency and knowledge in latest trends, technology, and best practices in editing and how our readers consume our content.
• Be proficient in the U.S. legal system as it relates to criminal justices’ issues but also public records requests and appeals of denials.
• Be proficient in data analysis and computer-assisted reporting techniques.
• Maintain proficiency and knowledge in latest trends and best practices for visual storytelling.
• Maintain proficiency and knowledge for SEO.
• Ensure all content meets established tone, theme, accuracy, fairness, style, and consistency requirements.
• Identify opportunities for strategic growth in both revenue and traffic metrics.

Required Qualifications:

• Advanced experience in journalism, line editing and ideation, strong competence in writing and reporting.
• Advanced experience in non-sports journalism
• Advanced ability to follow and shape stories at all stages of development.
• Advanced ability to help writers craft award-winning longform content.
• Keen news judgment.
• Broad knowledge of sports, especially pro and college.
• Broad knowledge of political, social, hard news, criminal justice, education and government issues and developments.
• Basic knowledge of open records laws and how to obtain public documents.
• Basic knowledge/appreciation of the elements of video and audio platform production.
• Advanced understanding of web-authoring tools and software, and a familiarity with content management systems.
• Strong people management skills.
• Good appreciation of popular culture
• Strong understanding of the market positioning and strategies of assigned major sports and events 

Required Education:

• An undergraduate degree in journalism, communications, online/multimedia or related field and a minimum of five years’ direct professional editorial and/or reporting experience, with at least one year in people management OR a high school diploma and a suitable combination of related training and experience including one year of people-management experience. 

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