Below are samples of work by Roger Simmons. First, a quick note. I created this page for you on my personal blog, RogerSimmons.com. I blogged about Orlando TV news from 2001 to 2013, and this site was named the “Best Local Website” in Orlando by readers of Orlando Magazine (beating out my employer, the Orlando Sentinel). Because of my work duties, I have not been able to update this site. But feel free to look around at past posts.
Special sections
In addition to leading the Orlando Sentinel Sports and Entertainment staffs in producing content each day for digital and print, here are two examples of semi-recent big projects I led — our coverage of the 2013 Daytona 500 and our annual five-section football preview in 2012. These pages show the print sections for each project, since much of the online content has expired. But all of the material in the print editions was available online and was optimized into web-friendly forms.
Writing examples
Here are a few examples of different types of sports stories I have written over the years.
- Live event sidebar – Orlando Magic home opener
- Feature — history of Orlando’s failed sports teams
- Something fun — on the day the world was supposed to end, what people were going to miss from sports
- News story — baseball plans to cut teams
- Weekly column — on TV sports
Digital content
I primarily use my OrlandoSentinel.com blog, “From the Sports Editor,” to aggregate stories of interest to our readers. Based on the material and the use of strong SEO, my blog posts are often the most read text content on OrlandoSentinel.com.
Find what’s popular and maximize traffic to that subject
Former Florida Gators QB Tim Tebow is of great interest to our readers, and there is national interest in his career as well. A few examples of recent blog posts focusing on Tebow that performed very well for us.
- Glenn Beck says Tim Tebow ‘too controversial’ to get a job with NFL or ESPN
- Bill Belichick doesn’t hate Tim Tebow, despite report
- Tim Tebow is ‘taboo,’ unlikely to play in NFL again
Use of enticing headlines can prompt clicks on blog posts
- ESPN shutting down one of its networks
- Which TV news anchor is singing the national anthem before the Coke 600 in Charlotte?
Adding supplemental coverage to existing content on OrlandoSentinel.com
- Following the death of Central Florida football player Deacon Jones, I blogged about his appearance on The Brady Bunch
- After the Tony Awards were performing well for us, I did a blog post about Mike Tyson dancing in the opening
Beyond text
Telling a story is sometimes better in a photo gallery form.
- Looking back at Orlando sports stars, then and now. This gallery I created has more than 100,000 page views
- A preseason Top 25 ranking of football teams could be text but it can also be a photo gallery
- For Mothers Day, gallery of sports stars and their moms
Boosting SEO
To boost OrlandoSentinel.com’s SEO authority with Google on “Tim Tebow,” I created a Tim Tebow channel. We post all stories or blog posts about Tebow on the channel. As a result, we see our Tebow stories rank higher than those of other much larger websites. View the Tim Tebow channel here.
Video
Sports Buzz video. I created Sports Buzz for OrlandoSentinel.com. Several times a week, we try to engage our readers on a sports topic. We create a package that includes text and video, and solicit reactions via a poll and comments.
Video talkbacks with Fox 35 News. I appear regularly on Orlando Fox affiliate, WOFL-Channel 35, to talk about issues in sports.