Jacob Merda Adams Email & Phone Number

Butler, Pennsylvania, United States

Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, United States

* Responsible for editing, posting and socialing game coverage, feature stories and more 2-4 nights per week during high school and college basketball season. Communicate regularly with reporters and photographers to quickly publish their content

Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania, United States

• Worked in Office of Outreach and Engagement, helping educate underserved communities Pittsburgh and Western Pennsylvania about cancer risk factors, screenings, tips and more using flyers, newsletters, digital platforms.

Harrisburg, Pennsylvania, United States

* Edited preview and game coverage during high school football season in central Pennsylvania from staff of freelancers

Louisville, Kentucky, United States

• Helped lead sports department of 5-8 reporters in covering University of Louisville and University of Kentucky football and basketball, high school sports, Kentucky Derby and more, while working with digital.
• Served as interim sports editor for eight months through multiple rounds of layoffs and staff restructurings, spearheading coverage of Louisville athletic director hire, Racing Louisville sexual assault scandal.
• Developed preview and live coverage plan of 2023 Kentucky Derby that generated more than 3.5 million page views and 240 subscriptions. Coverage included more than 80 stories previewing horses, jockeys, trainers.
• Improved high school sports coverage strategy, generating more than 1,200 new subscribers, including 400 new subscribers from football previews in August 2022
• Designed recruiting reporter strategy — a new position created in May 2022 — that generated approximately 300 new subscribers in eight months and focused on enterprising coverage instead of reporting only individual.

Madison, Wisconsin, United States

• Headquartered at the Wisconsin State Journal, primarily directed high school coverage across four newsrooms, with four reporters and multiple assistant reporters, and modernized coverage to focus more on enterprise.
• Transformed high school content budgeting and coordination of four sports staffs in and around Madison, Wisconsin, by creating a new print planning schedule that streamlined and improved coordination and freed up.
• Assisted leadership and coverage of Wisconsin football, including preseason special section coverage, recruiting, breakouts and project planning

Carlisle, PA

• Led award-winning high school sports coverage focused on enterprise, multimedia and projects that consistently beat larger competitors in breaking news and quantity and quality of storytelling
• Constantly innovated local sports journalism coverage with emphasis on new video series, enterprise packages that focused on sports issues beyond wins and losses and evolving daily coverage of highly engaged local.
• Produced #Carlisle88 anniversary tab requiring more than 100 hours of research, reporting and archiving that reprinted a keepsake tab on the 30th anniversary of Carlisle High School’s fourth straight state boys.
• Hired and developed multiple reporters into national award-winning journalists, boasting a sports department with a high percentage of minority journalists (up to 50% of staff)
• Led workshops with Shippensburg University journalism students, holding monthly sessions on various aspects of journalism including writing ledes, crafting nutgraphs and developing stories

Philadelphia, PA

• Coordinated nearly 20 volunteers, streaming online broadcasts of Temple home games in multiple sports
• Generated weekly game highlights for A-10, and streamed 2012 Army/Navy swim meet

Philadelphia, PA

• Wrote four enterprise pieces in April 30 package on the American Athletic Conference
• Broke story on former and current men's and women's basketball players affected by the Israel conflict in November 2012