Assistant Director, Athletic Media Relations

General Summary

This individual serves as a media relations contact for the Department of Intercollegiate Athletics in addition to helping lead the department's social media and graphic design strategy. Specific responsibilities include but are not limited to: coordinating all media relations activities relevant to assigned sports, including social media, website and game management, serving as the liaison between the local and national media and our student athletes, and maintaining statistics and records for all assigned sports.

Principal Duties and Responsibilities

• Oversee media relations for the department's 18-sport athletic program, including direct day-to-day involvement with at least two programs.
• Promote the assigned sports through traditional media relations means, including press releases, notes, previews, and recaps, using Adobe InDesign desktop publishing software.
• Maintain and upkeep the assigned sports pages on the official website of EMU Athletics, EMUEagles.com.
• Create, edit and produce video content for the website, social media, and ESPN3/ESPN+
• Supervise the press operations for the assigned sports. Ensure that an adequate staff of student-assistant workers are assigned specific roles and are available to assist with media coverage of the home events.
• Coordinate the publicity efforts to direct media attention toward student-athletes and coaches being considered or nominated for special awards or recognition.
• Report statistics and award nominations to the conference and national offices.
• Travel with EMU teams as needed to handle media relations.
• Prepare game notes packets for assigned sport(s).
• Serve as the assigned sports statistician, historian and photo archivist.
• Work closely with other departments in developing an overall content management strategy for the assigned sports.
• Serve as University liaison with other institutions that we compete against.
• Approve media credential requests as needed.
• Serve as department's secondary spokesperson in crisis situations.
• Serve as liaison with the Division of Communications.
• Carry a cell phone and be available to media and athletics staff at all hours, including holidays.
• Adhere to any and all NCAA, Mid-American Conference and Eastern Michigan University policies, rules, regulations, and operational procedures.
• Attend meetings and represent the Department on committees and planning groups.
• Perform related departmental duties as required.

Minimum Qualifications:

Bachelor's degree is required.

A minimum of two years full-time collegiate or professional sports information, media relations or public relations experience required.

Graphic design experience and working knowledge of Adobe Creative Cloud is required.

Ability to create and update graphics using Adobe Photoshop and documents using Adobe InDesign is required.

Direct experience with Stat Crew (Automated Scorebook) and/or NCAA Live Stats (Genius) is required.

Experience with SIDEARM web-editing software is required.

Ability to shoot and edit video is required.

Demonstrated knowledge of NCAA rules and regulations as they pertain to athletic communications along with NCAA approved statistical procedures for basketball, football, and volleyball is required.

Experience with interview techniques and the ability to define and deliver media messages is necessary.

Demonstrated ability to maintain professional relationships with external media outlets is necessary

Must possess strong written and verbal communication skills, game-day management experience, and a proficiency in InDesign, Photoshop and social media platforms, including Twitter, Facebook and Instagram.

Preferred Qualifications:

Some experience with managing media relations for a high-profile sport at the NCAA Division I level is highly desired.

Understanding of other external related functions in athletics including marketing, development, and licensing are desirable.

Special Instructions:

N/A