Wayne Staats Email & Phone Number

Atlanta, Ga, Us

Atlanta, Ga, Us

Greater Atlanta Area

Editorial producer for NCAA.com (and previously for PGA.com). Responsibilities include writing and editing stories, site management and producing content.-Write stories on the dozens of sports and championships across NCAA, using SEO strategy to maximize page views and capitalize on reader interest.-Edit and update the NCAA.com site. This includes updating images, tiles, changing layouts, linking to live video and changing headlines when needed.-Write game stories, news stories, social stories and upload video content.-Help program the content in the March Madness Live app during the NCAA tournament, with an emphasis on converting readers into viewers during games.-"Bracket expert" throughout March Madness. Lead tracking of millions of online brackets as part of our "Bracket Challenge Game" — to see how long men's and women's college basketball brackets stay perfect in the NCAA tournament. Also co-host of a live daily bracket show leading up to the tournament, sharing bracket data as fans fill out brackets.-Monitor page views Chartbeat (and previously with Parse.ly and Omniture) to discover trends and help develop content strategy.-Provided on-site content at the 2019 Final Four of the NCAA tournament and the 2019 PGA Championship.-Previously worked on PGA.com's Facebook and Instagram strategy, using analytics to look at best post practices.

Greater Atlanta Area

Led a seven-person breaking news team that focused on Big Ten football and basketball. Besides managing freelancers and working with my fellow staff members, I provided weekly feedback to writers, put together a weekly schedule and worked on our social media strategy. This included looking at which posts were most successful and using what we learned to improve future posts.As part of the job, I had to be knowledgeable about all college football teams, not only the Big Ten. We constantly looked for historic connections and stories that interested the many passionate fanbases. Our strategy was focused on understanding what fans care about and why.On the content side, my work included writing bursts during games and whenever news broke throughout the week. I also helped to implement our SEO strategy, passing along insight and advice to the team. SEO work included the NCAA Tournament, weekly college football rankings, game time information (from weekly games to the national championship game) and postseason tournaments for all college sports, all combining for millions of page views.

Augusta, Georgia Area

-Cover high school sports, focusing on more than 30 schools. Main sport is football, when I write game stories, features, previews and provide content for a yearly preview section. Also the host of a weekly video show.-Wrote stories, blogged and helped with day-to-day coverage of the 2011, 2012, 2013, 2014 and 2015 Masters Tournament. Put together features, news stories and more. Worked from the course all week, handling blogging duties while also delivering multiple stories and features every day.-Covered the 2011 and 2012 SEC Championship Game in Atlanta, where I tweeted, wrote a window story for the front of the paper and had a sidebar in 2011. The next year, I tweeted, wrote a quarter-by-quarter update story and also had a sidebar. I also covered the South Regional semifinals and final of the 2012 NCAA Men’s Division I Basketball Tournament and the 2013 Final Four, both in Atlanta.-Post stories immediately following games and blogged and tweeted during action.

State College, Pennsylvania Area

Reporter at the independently run student paper at Penn State:-Penn State Football: 2009 seasonOften wrote multiple stories a day, including breaking news items. Blogged, used Twitter, helped produce a football magazine for all home games and also did videos at least three times a week. Traveled to road games at Northwestern, Illinois and Michigan and covered the Capital One Bowl against LSU in Orlando.-Men’s Basketball: Winter 2007Provided beat work throughout the season, including live blogs, features, game stories and previews. Also traveled to the Big Ten Tournament in Indianapolis, Ind.-Other beats: Baseball: Spring 2009; Women’s Basketball: Winter 2009; Men’s Lacrosse: Spring 2008; Women’s Volleyball: Fall 2008; Field Hockey: Fall 2007

Greater Pittsburgh Area

Covered the Pittsburgh Pirates and visiting teams whenever the beat reporter didn’t travel to Pittsburgh.-Wrote game stories, feature stories and game previews and also covered the trade deadline by myself.-Wrote a minimum of two stories a day for Pirates home games during the summer internship.

-Wrote more than 20 stories during the summer as an intern, covering high school sports.