Sports editor in SEC locale | Opelika, Alabama

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Come lead one of the best and most reputable sports journalism teams in the country, and cover SEC action and professional golf!

The Opelika-Auburn News -- the hometown daily newspaper for Auburn University, the PGA's Grand National golf course on the Robert Trent Jones Golf Trail, portions of nearby Lake Martin, and for many other popular attractions -- is seeking a can-do-everything sports editor who can lead an extremely talented team and contribute on a daily basis.

Our sports coverage has won great fame in recent years, including being one of only 13 sports organizations in the nation, from all-size categories, to win Grand Slam honors this year from APSE. We have an Auburn beat writer and a prep beat writer in addition to the sports editor, and numerous correspondents who fan out and cover a highly charged prep scene.

All our pagination is done at a regional design center, so night duty requires mostly organizational skills, good editing and good management of deadlines. The two sports writers on staff have excellent backgrounds and proven abilities that continue to shine and impress. We need someone who can recognize the riches we have now and help us mine for more.

Among other attractions for sports editors: the PGA comes here in July for the Barbasol Classic, featuring many of the top names in golf. Also, Auburn often sees many of its greatest stars return home for various events and story opportunities, including Cam Newton, Bo Jackson, Charles Barkley, Frank 'Big Hurt' Thomas, and recent World Series stars Tim Hudson and David Ross, among many others.

Auburn's softball and baseball teams both have remained in the nation's Top 5 for much of the season. Its equestrian team has won multiple national championships in recent years. And the prep scene is known for producing unlimited enterprise potential from small hayfield rural heroes to D-I blue chippers. Outdoors potential abounds, with a growing mountain-bike venue and an extremely popular lake hotspot on nearby Lake Martin.

Basically speaking, it's a fun sports scene.

We provide opportunity and experience, including a strong encouragement for fun enterprise work, serious watchdog efforts, and editors with proven experience. Our digital editor is a former executive editor of a major metro and led other talented metro staffs before moving to Lake Martin; and the editor also left the corporate and metro scene with 30-plus years of experience that included international reporting and leading multiple teams on digital transformation, to return home to this wonderful community. Our news editor was a former reporter and digital editor, so digital is a big part of our world, and this position will be greatly involved in upcoming digital-growth strategy.

We frequently employ digital tools such as ScribbleLive, and we look for hires who have an active social media presence with their journalism work.

This job requires at least five years of experience, with great preference given to proven management experience.

The OA News is known for hiring top-notch talent and sending journalists, especially sports journalists, into major markets when they leave us to pursue bigger career goals; while some have stayed to call this home. The newspaper/website has won the General Excellence award for most of the past 14 years.

Interested candidates should send an email with a cover letter, resume and links to recent work, to Editor Troy Turner, tturner@oanow.com

Please act quickly, as we would like to move now on hiring the best candidate.

 

Third time this has been posted. Fantastic area for athletics, though!

 

Some good people have passed through this place recently. Pretty sure it plays up in the APSE contest and does really well.

 

I cover the Auburn beat for this shop now. If anyone has any questions about the job/newspaper/area, feel free to PM me.

 

Bumping this back to the top because the job is still open.

 

Man I don't understand why this spot is still open. I have thoughts about why but it's kind of amazing to me.

 

This job seems to come open every year. Something going on at this place ...

 

The most recent Opelika sports editor, Dana Sulonen, is running sports digital for Gannett Tennessee. The SE who preceded her, Mike Szvetitz, left to be the SE in Richmond and is now the managing editor there.

It's a great job for somebody who can do a little of everything all at once. However, not everyone wants to live in Auburn, Ala.

 

Sure you don't mean this place's jobs come open every year?

This is the second time the job has opened since 2004.

 

Damn. Maybe it's the actual paper in Auburn, Ala. that comes open a lot? Damn, I'm getting old and forgetful.

 

If not the SE, then the Auburn football beat spot.

 

The Auburn beat comes open a lot, but it's not necessarily a bad thing. The last few people before me have all moved on to either more high-profile beats or bigger publications. Sports editor has had fairly little turnover.

And I can see why moving to Alabama might be a turn-off to those who might apply to this job, but as guy born and raised in Connecticut, I have nothing bad to say about living here. Cost of living is relatively low, and because it's in a college town, it doesn't feel at all like the true deep south (even though it is). There's a lot of reader interest in Auburn, and there's a solid prep scene, too.

The OA News is a small shop and the job is definitely demanding, but it's enjoyable and rewarding work.