The news of Post-Standard & Syracuse.com layoffs, especially those of long-time, trusted reporters, was not good news. The Syracuse-area media lost a lot of good people, not to mention us Syracuse Orange sports fans. Some folks like columnist Sean Kirst and basketball beat writers Donna Ditota & Mike Waters are sticking around. We also know that Nolan Weidner and Dave Rahme will no longer be working the beat for Syracuse football.

If you're about silver linings, I suppose this is it. 24 new jobs at Syracuse Media Group and Advance Central Services Syracuse have been posted over on Syracuse.com’s Local Jobs page. They include SU Football Sports Reporter, SU Football/Basketball Sports Reporter, Sports Reporter (General) and Sports Community Engagement Specialist.

If you've ever harbored any ideas of covering the Syracuse Orange as a reporter for a major newspaper, here's your shot.

Just make sure you're qualified...

To be a good fit for this opportunity you will have:

• Solid journalism experience, including a track record of success in sports reporting.
• Demonstrated familiarity with social media and digital tools of journalism.
• Proven experience building, maintaining and engaging an active audience in sports.
• Strong critical thinking skills and a focus on creating content for the audience rather than to promote particular teams, players or coaches.
• A proven ability to cultivate sources beyond the obvious ones.
• The ability to work independently and prioritize tasks appropriately under deadline pressure in mobile contexts.
• Strong reporting, writing and organizational skills.
• A solid understanding of news writing, journalistic ethics and story structure.

They forgot to list one.

• Deal with those schmuck bloggers who spend way too much time using your articles as the basis for their inane rants on uniform changes.

The future for the Post-Standard and Syracuse.com is clear. They still want quality reporting, they just want people who do that and understand how to engage an audience online in the new media world, whatever that is and will end up being.

One thing I noticed in the listing for the Sports Community Engagement position. "You will moderate and engage the Central New York sports community on syracuse.com." Good God, I don't care how much they're paying, I wouldn't wish that on anyone...

H/T: CNY Central