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Justin Jarrett

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Justin Jarrett

Assistant sports editor/online at The Island Packet and The Beaufort Gazette
Newspapers | Savannah, Georgia Area, US

Summary

In nearly seven years of sports journalism experience at daily newspapers, I have proven my ability to generate award-winning breaking news stories, features, enterprise projects, columns and game stories. I have covered NCAA Division I football and men's basketball beats, PGA Tour and Champions Tour golf events, professional football and baseball games, and high school and recreational sports. I also have experience as a copy editor, designer, agate clerk and do-it-all sports editor at a small daily, so I understand all aspects of putting out a high-quality sports section every day. For the past four years, I have worked in the sports department at The Island Packet, a 20,000-circulation newspaper in the Hilton Head Island, S.C., area. When the Packet's sports section merged with The Beaufort Gazette's sports section in July 2008, I became the USC Beaufort beat writer for both papers. Soon after, I was promoted to assistant sports editor/online for the Packet and Gazette. I continue to cover USC Beaufort, and I write a weekly sports column, but I'm also in charge of maintaining the sports sections of both papers' Web sites. Our sports department makes a concerted effort to stay on the cutting edge of the online movement, producing audio and video clips from live events to bolster our Web coverage and recording a weekly podcast discussing the area sports scene. If you want to find out more about me or read some of my work, please feel free to visit my Web site -- www.justin-jarrett.com.
Specialties: Column writing, feature writing, deadline writing, social media.

Experience

  • Sept 2008 - Present

    Assistant sports editor/online / The Island Packet and The Beaufort Gazette

    • Oversee and maintain the sports sections of both papers’ Web sites • Beat writer for USC Beaufort: Write features, enterprise and breaking news in addition to event coverage; write weekly notes package and administer live blogs during home baseball games • Write a weekly column, as well as feature and enterprise stories, and provide general sports coverage • Produce online-exclusive features such as audio and video clips gathered during event coverage, blog posts, live chats and podcasts • Update Web site throughout the day with breaking news, promos to new blog posts, etc. • Created and continue to maintain multiple sports-related Twitter accounts to drive traffic to stories and blog posts on our Web site, send out live score updates during high school football games and interact with readers • Worked with Web editor to create team pages for all area high school football and basketball teams • Maintain team pages, including updating HTML modules with schedules and results and maintaining statistics databases for high school football and basketball • Help coordinate planning and production of material for weekly “Preps Plus” page • Help produce annual special sections previewing the Verizon Heritage PGA Tour event and the high school football season
  • Jul 2005 - Sept 2008

    Sports reporter / The Island Packet

    • Primary beat writer for two high schools: Wrote features, enterprise and breaking news, in addition to game coverage • Posted to a high school sports blog, participated in a weekly sports podcast for the paper’s Web site and produced “Web extras,” such as audio and video clips gathered during event coverage • Helped coordinate planning and production of material for weekly “Preps Plus” page • Helped produce annual special sections previewing the Verizon Heritage PGA Tour event and the high school football season • Wrote a biweekly tennis column for recreation page and occasional high school sports column for Bluffton Packet supplement
  • May 2004 - Jul 2005

    Sports editor / Parsons Sun

    • Oversaw all aspects of planning and production for daily sports pages • Expanded coverage of eight area high schools, especially coverage of non-revenue sports and coverage of outlying schools • Expanded coverage to include a nearby NCAA Division II football program • Expanded coverage of American Legion baseball • Wrote regular features, issue stories and in-depth profiles • Produced annual special sections previewing the high school football and basketball seasons • Coordinated with advertising department to create a weekly “NASCAR News” supplement • Supervised a summer intern for production of weekly youth baseball and softball supplement
  • Jun 2002 - May 2004

    Sports journalist / Columbia Missourian

    • Sports columnist, January 2004-May 2004 • University of Missouri football beat writer, August 2003-January 2004 • Designer/agate clerk, Summer 2003 • University of Missouri men’s basketball beat writer, October 2002-April 2003 • Copy editor, August 2002-December 2002 • General sports reporter, Summer 2002

Education

  • 2000 - 2004

    University of Missouri-Columbia

    Bachelor in Journalism

Additional information

Websites:
My Website, My Company, Follow me on Twitter
Honors:
INDIVIDUAL Association Press Sports Editors Under 40,000 circ. 2008 • First place, Project reporting • Third place, Features • Honorable mention, Explanatory 2006 • Honorable mention, Breaking news S.C. Press Association Under 26,000 circ. 2008 • First place, Sports features • Second place, Sports features • Second place, Sports columns 2007 • Third place, Spot sports story 2006 • First place, Sports features • Second place, Sports enterprise • Third place, Sports columns 2005 • Third place, Sports enterprise SECTION Association Press Sports Editors 2008 • Top 10, Under 40,000 Sunday • Top 10, Under 40,000 special section • Honorable mention, Under 40,000 daily • Top 10, Under 20,000 daily • Top 10, Under 20,000 Sunday • Top 10, Under 20,000 special section 2007 • Top 10, Under 40,000 special section • Honorable mention, Under 40,000 Sunday 2006 • Top 10, Under 40,000 daily • Honorable mention, Under 40,000 special section
LinkedIn

"Sympathy Fatigue" blog

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Posts

  • March 16, 11:40 AM

    Halfway there, and how are we doing? Heck if I know …

    We’re halfway there! I can’t decide if that seems unbelievable because we should be farther along or because we should have longer to go. On the one hand, it seems so long ago that Megan shook me awake and thrust that pee-stick in my blurry line of sight, but on the other hand it occurs to [...]
  • March 09, 11:53 AM

    Tuesday morning something-or-others (19 weeks)

    Exploding sensory development! As big as a large heirloom tomato! Now with vernix caseosa! But wait, there’s more! We’re only 13 days from The Gender Revelation (which would be a terrific band name, by the way) so things are about to start picking up after several weeks of calm before the storm. Judging by the “what your baby [...]
  • March 02, 10:53 AM

    Why, why, why? Random thoughts (and questions) at 18 weeks

    The questions, I suspect, are mostly rhetorical, though I always provide the obvious answer. “Why do I feel so huge?” (Even though her “baby bump,” as the kids on E! call it, hasn’t begun to show to the general public.) “Why am I so tired?” (Because you got up to pee 17 times last night?) “Why are my [...]
  • February 23, 01:01 PM

    Tuesday (afternoon) something-or-others (17 weeks)

    The Tiny Being of Many Nicknames is now about five inches long and weighs about five ounces, which according to BabyCenter is about the size of a turnip, which has to be one of the most obscure possible foods to use as a reference point. I mean, seriously, do you have a good idea of [...]
  • February 16, 12:44 PM

    Tuesday (afternoon) something-or-others (16 weeks)

    Don’t have much time to craft a brilliant post today, which is probably just as well, because I don’t have much to report. All is well, Megan is feeling fine, and we’re doing our best to enjoy the last few months of Life As We Know It. The little dude or dudette is about to hit [...]
  • February 09, 11:04 AM

    Tuesday morning something-or-others (15 weeks)

    Apparently the 15-week mark is sort of a ho-hum week in the pregnancy world, kind of like your 22nd, 23rd and 24th birthdays: You recognize it, but you’re really just passing the time until the next big milestone, though I would suggest finding out the gender of your child is a bit more exciting than [...]
  • February 07, 09:54 AM

    Last Super Bowl party for a while

    Let me preface this by saying what we have done for the Super Bowl the past, oh, since I can remember, hardly passes as a party by most people’s standards. I haven’t enjoyed an adult beverage during the big game (or at all) since Brett Favre John Elway was playing quarterback, which if you’re scoring [...]
  • February 02, 11:01 AM

    Tuesday morning something-or-others (14 weeks)

    OK, we’re at 14 weeks, or T-minus 182 days until the ETA of Baby Jarrett and the impending demise of Life As We Know It. We are now unequivocally in the second trimester, or as I call it, the boring trimester, not that there’s anything wrong with that. Before you freak out on me, I know [...]
  • January 26, 10:34 AM

    Tuesday morning something-or-others (13 weeks)

    I wasn’t going to post today, because I have a ton of work to do and I’m trying to pace myself so I don’t run out of material in the next 189 days. But then I got the weekly update from BabyCenter.com and it was loaded with fun facts (some of which are unfit to [...]
  • January 25, 12:06 PM

    No news is good news

    In the immortal words of Lt. Frank Drebin, “All right. Move on. Nothing to see here. Please disperse.” (Please don’t disperse. Keep coming back as often as possible. I just can’t promise you any real news for a little while.) In all seriousness, the purpose of this post is simply to tell you that there’s nothing [...]
"Sympathy Fatigue" blog

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In my day job, I'm an award-winning sports writer doing my best to adjust to the changing media landscape and embrace our new internet overlords. I believe in the power of the written word, no matter the medium, but I also recognize the importance and almost limitless potential of the Web in today's media climate.

In my spare time, I'm a husband, a music lover, a prolific television viewer, a sports fan, and an aspiring novelist/humorist with a social media addiction. You can find out more about me and read my work at justin-jarrett.com.

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