Sports Editor, Pocatello Idaho

Just curious, Idaho, what's the pay, size of staff and overall lowdown?

Company: Idaho State Journal
Position: Seeking Talented Sports Editor
Location: Pocatello, Idaho
Job Status: Full-time
Salary: Negotiable
Ad Expires: September 11, 2006
Job ID: 668004
Website: http://www.idahostatejournal.com

Description:
The Idaho State Journal, an 18,000 daily in Southeastern Idaho, is seeking a talented newsroom leader to fill our sports editor position. The Journal has set a precedent for excellence and we are looking for a do-it-all journalist who can take us to the next level.

Last year our sports department won two APSE awards and regularly starred on our front page.

We attract the best and brightest sports writers and we cover more than just surface level sports. We have been recognized for writing about stem cell therapy, rodeo, school finance and sports spot news.

Our sports department covers Division IAA Idaho State University and travels with the team to out-of-town games. We want to create compelling, insightful packages on a daily basis and we are looking for a sports editor who can help us do that.

If you have journalism in your blood and aspire to be the best in your field, send us a resume, cover letter explaining why you’re interested in working for the Idaho State Journal and at least 10 samples of your best work. Mail your materials to Ian Fennell, editor, Idaho State Journal, P.O. Box 431, Pocatello, ID 83204.

 

Damn! 10 samples of your work. Does that seem a bit much to anyone else?

 

I don't know anyone in Pocatello, but I have a friend that moved to Twin Falls ('bout two hours away from Poky).

Here's the comparison.

Pocatello: Circ under 20K, six full-time staffers, one Div. I-AA college

Twin Falls: Circ over 20K, three full-time staffers, one JUCO

However, I've been to both. They're okay, but they're not Tahoe. I'd rather stay down South.

Final verdict: I see Twin growing, but the paper is stagnant.

 

Twin Falls left mulitple positions open for months on end and I doubt they've re-filled the entire staff. The Pocatello paper has won multiple awards and though the old SE had some real issues, this is a paper that could really do some cool stuff if they get a good SE. Idaho State is a good school with a strong I-AA football team and Pocatello also has some of the best high school programs in the state.

 

They only have four full-timers, actually... they have a part-time agate clerk and a part-time layout person, three writers and an editor. Unless something has changed over the past couple months or they're going to create a couple new positions.

It's not a bad market to cover. The paper seems to have some interesting management, however.. people seem to come and go there like the wind. I know turnover is high, but turnover for these guys, in all departments, not just sports, is worse than what I've seen at any similar-or-slightly-higher circ in the area, including mine.

 

I work at the Idaho State Journal and Mitch's take is a little off.

People are not coming and going from here like the wind. Far from it

The ISJ, like Mitch's paper and others of our size, is typically filled with those getting their careers off the ground. It isn't unusual for these young journalists to collect their first year or two worth of clips and move on to bigger things.

It's true several in the sports department are relatively new, but they are a crack team. The reason the most of the AWARD WINNING former reporters are gone is the editor of that section is outstanding. They have all moved on to larger markets. I've been a journalist for nearly six years and have met few people with the full understanding of journalims as our SE. He has built a nationally recognized, award winning section and will be missed.

On the news side, I am the newest reporter here and have been with the ISJ for more than a year. Our longest tenured reporter has been here six. The only reporter with more time than him has been the features editor for more than a year. One reporter took a brief break late last year to work elsewhere, but is back here since early this year.

Mitch spoke out of turn when choosing to describe our paper. In 15 months here, i don't ever recall seeing him in our newsroom. We have a new ME who is taking us in an outstanding direction, while Mitch's paper is working through some interesting redesign issues.

Jimmy Hancock

 

I spent a year and a half at this paper and left four years ago to move up the food chain. Any questions about the area, feel free to ask... I can't imagine it's changed much since I left. Pocatello wasn't a terrible place to live and if I was more into the outdoors, it would have been better. The absolute best thing about this paper is the chance for clips... it was my first job out of college and I immediately got to do I-AA football backup coverage, then the beat full-time the next year, as well as a season covering D-I men's basketball. Even the most junior staff member gets some college beat coverage, albeit volleyball or women's soccer (which is quite good).

Pay for this job is around $30k.

 

BTW, Poky or Mitch, what happened to Slater? Did Sports Illustrated finally come calling like he's said they were going to for the past decade?

 

Pokyhack -- Hey, hey, hey. Slow down there, turbo. Re-read my post. Nowhere in there did I bash your newspaper or your writers, or even your management. All I said was you had turnover, and, based on my experiences and knowledge of pretty much every other similarly-sized newspaper in this area, it was higher than most.

I've been here a little over three years. In that time, there have been two managing editors at the Journal, and if I'm not mistaken the first of those two started just a little before I arrived. So basically, three MEs in four years. There's also been a publisher change at least once in the past three years. They've gone through at least two different city editors that I know of, and I'm pretty sure the first one I knew wasn't there when I got here. Might be wrong there.

You want to sing the praises of your sportswriting staff, past and present? Let me do that for you. Mason Kelley is the best sportswriter that's been in SE Idaho in the past three years (maybe longer), myself included. You've had other great sports writers there -- Connor Doyle, Kurt Eilmes, Pete Iorizzo, and just recently, Ryan Divish and Brad Riddell, among others. Kellis Robinett, who is currently there, is pretty damn good, too, and the few articles I've seen from Dan Thompson have also been high quality. Beyond the writing, they've all been great to work with and cover games with.

Don't be so defensive. It wasn't meant as criticism -- just an observation. Sorry if anyone took it out of context.

 

I think this might be the first ever SportsJournalists.com Idaho Throwdown. This roooolz. Maybe us northern Idaho guys can start a battle, with the winner coming out and representing against the winner of the southern division. The winner could then go on to battle Utah to see who is the baddest sports journalist from a state nobody else cares about. Maybe getting Montana, Wyoming and the Dakotas involved would make this even better.

For the record, my scorecard shows Mitch ahead, with Jimmy losing points for taking things waaay to personally, but gaining for having rare pride in one's place of employment.

 

Hey, hey, hey,

We Montanans are staying out of you potato eaters fight.

We're too busy with the Brawl of the Wild.

 

The Journal has seemingly always had a high rate of turnover -- the entire newsroom, not just sports -- but it also has the longest-tenured newspaper person in all of Idaho. Joy Morrison has been there since the state was a territory.