Sports Reporter- Midland, TX

From jjobs.com
http://www.journalismjobs.com/Job_Listing.cfm?JobID=1565387

Company: Midland Reporter-Telegram
Position:
Wanted: Ace Sports Reporter
Location:
Midland, Texas
Job Status: Not Specified
Salary: Negotiable
Ad Expires:
March 25, 2014
Job ID: 1565387
Website: http://www.mrt.com

Description:

The Midland (Texas) Reporter-Telegram, a Hearst Corporation Newspaper in West Texas, is seeking a sports multi-media journalist for our award winning sports section.

We are looking for someone who can provide fresh ideas for stories, can work well on deadline, help keep the quality of our section high and also adapt to the ever changing world of digital journalism.

High schools are our bread and butter, but the Permian Basin’s sports scene is complemented by a Double-A baseball team, a yearly Web.com Tour golf event, a very active local golf scene and a Premier Development League soccer team.

This position is primarily a writing and reporting position. We are looking for someone who can not only write the game story and feature, but someone who can get into our community and find sports stories beyond the high schools.

Candidates should have a strong knowledge of AP Style, while experience with Adobe InDesign, Adobe Photoshop and Adobe Freehand is preferred but not required, and a solid knowledge of social media.

Experience is a plus but recent college graduates will be considered. We plan to fill this position quickly because of the how busy our spring season is.

Please send resume, clips and layouts to:

Len Hayward, Sports Editor

P.O. Box 1650

Midland, TX 79701

lhayward@hearstnp.com

 

Len's a good guy to deal with.

Back in the fall, he had to handle one of their high school football beats after management decided the sports opening was being converted to a digital-only position. I'll have to check if they're giving him the spot back or if one of his remaining staffers is on the move.

This is a rough time of year for a place like this to be shorthanded. Lots of overlap with HS basketball playoffs in full swing, HS soccer in midseason and spring sports at both prep and college levels cranking up.

Midland covers about half a dozen local high schools (MHS, Lee, Greenwood and some private schools). One private plays 11-man football, another plays six-man and a third I never hear about outside basketball season.

There's also Midland College (juco), which has a pretty solid all-around athletic program, and the Midland RockHounds (Double-A affiliate of Oakland). I believe there's also minor-league hockey and soccer that they deal with. The nearest four-year school is Texas-Permian Basin (D-II) over in Odessa. Texas Tech is a much bigger player on the college scene.

I haven't been to Midland for anything but covering games in about five years, but the area has been booming because of oil-field activity. That's caused the cost of housing to skyrocket with small one-bedroom apartments going for $600-$800 a month. A school I deal with hired a coach from out there last summer. Coach said they put their house up for sale and had an offer exceeding their asking price in less than 48 hours.

 

$600-$800? Hell, you wish. Try about $1100.

 

Len Hayward is definitely a great guy. They've had rough luck with the sports staff the last few years. Midland isn't for everyone. The sports scene is high quality though. The Odessa paper offers some competition on the college/minor league beats so that's kind of cool.