Sports reporter/copy editor -- Harrisonburg, Va.

The Daily News-Record, a 32,000-circulation Monday-Saturday newspaper (no Sunday edition) in Harrisonburg, Va., is seeking a sports copy editor/reporter. The job entails nightly desk work -- meaning pagination skills are essential -- and includes writing a handful of stories each week. It's also an ideal position for somebody who's interested in long-term projects. We have a six-person, news-oriented sports staff. Harrisonburg is a college town -- James Madison University and two small colleges are here -- in the Shenandoah Valley, two hours southwest of D.C. Essentially, this is an entry-level job, though applicants with a year or two of experience also will be considered. Send a cover letter and clips to csimmons@dnronline.com or Chris Simmons, Sports Editor, Daily News-Record, 231 S. Liberty St., Harrisonburg, Va. 22803. We'd prefer East Coast applicants.

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Good job, good staff, good location. If there were a Sonner Seal of Approval, this would get it. No question.

 

That's a job I wanted badly. Hopefully it opens again in a year.

 

Dont know anything about the paper, but the area is great. Beautiful country and not far from DC and some nice college towns.

 

Yep, it's located near JMU (60:40 girl to guy ratio) and an hour away from UVa.

 

OK, since this thing is about to fall off the map, I'm going to go ahead and shamelessly bump it -- for those of you who don't know, I work at this paper. Much like the last time this thing was open, I'm sure a lot of people are turned off by the word "copy editor" in the job title. The pagination and copy editing tasks aren't nearly as daunting as they might appear to be from the ad.
Your basic function in that realm would be to lay out our wire/national page each day, which is cookie cutter and can be easily done in an hour or two. Anyone who knows about my college work can tell you I'm an atrocius page designer, but even I can pinch hit and lay out this page in about an hour or so without much of a problem.
If you take advantage of this position, you'd have a ton of freedom to write, and the line about projects is true. The guy that's leaving produced some good takeout pieces with the extra time. Working every night gets old, I'm sure, but just for the record, this isn't a true desk position. Plus, you get to work directly under Chris Simmons, whose talents have often been discussed on this board. He will unquestionably make you a better writer.

 

The wise woodland creature, Duton, speaks the truth. I used to work this same position two years ago. Will you spend a lot of nights working designing pages and reading staff copy? Of course. But like Duton said, you get to crank out enterprise projects and take ownership of a few beats like soccer and wrestling. And I don't need to add that you get to work with Simmons...

There's opportunity to move up from here as well. There are DNR alums scattered everywhere: Notre Dame beat writer in Fort Wayne, Sports Illustrated staff writer, NY Post investigative reporter and Star-Ledger Mets beat writer.

 

Star-Ledger Mets beat writer? get real. jumping from the jmu women's beat to the ny mets beat is about as big a fairy tale as i've ever heard.

don't know this position's college responsibilities, but if they involve the opportunity to work with mr. kenny brooks, that bears mentioning.

 

My sources tell me that, yes, Mr. Brooks will be involved. And I'm guessing those without accomplished poker skills need not apply.

 

In that case, I'm all in.

Whuh? ... Which ex-girlfriend? ... SHIT!

Never mind.

 

I wouldn't go that far. There have been some pretty bad poker players that have passed through there. And as the others have stated, working with Chris Simmons will make you better.
That's about as much of a guarantee as you'll be able to get in the business these days.