Will Denner

Basics

• Age: 27
• Job: Sports Reporter at the Mail Tribune (Medford, Oregon)
• Hometown: Portland, Oregon
• Education: Bachelor of Arts, University of Oregon 2016
• Major: Journalism

 Background

• Currently a sports reporter at the Mail Tribune, a daily newspaper in Medford, Oregon. I cover a mix of high school, Southern Oregon University and community sports.
• Previously, I worked for the Chico Enterprise-Record in Chico, California as a sports reporter, while also filling in on public safety and breaking news during the 2018 Camp Fire. Our publication was named a Pulitzer Prize finalist in 2019 for our coverage of California’s deadliest and most destructive wildfire in history.
  During my nearly three-year tenure, four of my stories were recognized by the California Newspaper Publishers Association between 2018 and 2020, including a pair of first-place awards for “Sports Feature Story” and “Sports Game Story.”
• From November 2016 to April 2018, I was the sports editor of the Madras Pioneer, a weekly newspaper in central Oregon covering Jefferson County. As a one-person department, I was responsible for all facets of the sports section. This includes writing a majority of stories, shooting photos and video, laying out weekly print sections using Adobe InDesign, managing Facebook and Twitter accounts, etc.
  I won two awards at the 2018 Oregon Newspaper Publishers Association’s “Better Newspaper Contest” in the categories of “Best Sports Story” and “Best Sports Photo.”
• Also formerly a news reporting intern at the East Oregonian via the Charles Snowden Internship Program. I covered a little bit of everything, but specialized in business and community affairs, plus an occasional sports assignment. I also wrote feature stories for the EO’s annual Round-Up Magazine and Umatilla County Fair tab.
• Wrote for the Daily Emerald, the University of Oregon’s independent campus newspaper, while in college. I covered UO football, men’s basketball, golf and tennis.

Future

• My ultimate career goal is to become a beat reporter for a collegiate or professional sports team. Through my experience covering both sports and news,  I have a passion for reporting on daily news, though I’m always looking for big-picture topics and trends. I aim to tell stories that resonate with audiences beyond people invested in sports, and in many cases, uncover stories of people and issues that were previously unknown.