ASE, Florida Today

Ditto for Ralph Routon.

 

First-time poster here and a pretty proud Florida Today alum.

The newspaper gets an undeservedly bad rap, in this former sports editor's opinion. For its size, Florida Today can be as good as it gets: tremendously talented and hard-working writing staff, opportunity to cover the entire state, above-average resources for a 90,000-or-so circ paper and, perhaps most importantly, sports is — and always will be — a priority.

You win your fair share going head to head with the Sentinel (John Denton on the Magic) and break as much news on the biggest beat in the state as anyone anywhere (David Jones on Florida). You'll be hard-pressed to find a more enterprising high schools writer than Mike Cherry, who kicked tail on the West Virginia football beat for a long time in Charleston, and the columnist (Pete Kerasotis) is an APSE top-10 regular.

Whomever lands this gig will have a chance to work with some really gifted people, both the writing staff and the designers, led by the incomparable Hillard Grossman. I could go on and on about the staff.

I'd highly recommend the job. Matter of fact, I'd have been very happy staying in Melbourne much longer than 2 1/2 years had my dream gig (college editor in Atlanta) not opened up.

Any quick questions — emphasize quick — I can answer about the job, just e-mail me. I'll always tout this newspaper and the great people there, and I'm not blowing smoke. I've worked at four newspapers and one magazine and, in a lot of ways, FLAT stacks up well against any of them. My work e-mail, best way to reach me, is jdalessio@ajc.com.

 

It seems that the problem is not the people you'd supervise, but the people calling the shots above you (and I don't mean the SE).

 

Agreed, the people on the sports staff there do a great job despite what we've heard about from what's going on above them. You'd think with as many APSEs as they have won over the past few years, the SEs and ASEs would be happy to be there:

2006: Daily (HM) / Kerasotis (5th in Columns)
2005: Daily and Special Sections (HM) / Jones (1st in Breaking News), Jones (5th in Gamer), Scott Brown (4th in Explanatory)
2004: Daily and Special Sections (HM) / Kerasotis (1st in Columns), John Denton (2nd in Breaking)
2003: Top 10 Daily and Sunday / Jones (3rd Breaking), Jones (HM in Gamers)

Jones is arguably the best on the beat and definitely the best at breaking news. Denton more than holds his own with the Sentinel and Kerasotis is solid. Brown was good too before he left for the Pitt Trib-Review.

 

Jones is definitely the best of a bad group on the UF beat. Granted, there hasn't been much talent on that beat since Schad and Darlington left, but right now it's Jones and a bunch of hacks. The kid from Orlando is OK, but he doesn't break news.

 

Not to hijack this thread, but anyone who has read Darlington's raw copy knows this: He should buy his editors a steak dinner once a week.

 

Disagree. Darlington does a solid job writing and reporting.

 

I would offer that Robbie Andreu is as dialed-in on that beat as anyone ever has been. David Jones is in his wake. And I like and respect both personally and professionally.

rb

 

"Dan:" Didn't Darlington win an APSE award just this past year?

 

yeah. Darlington's got game.

 

I will say I just got a private message about Darlington's raw copy.

Dan Rydell might be vindicated for me .....

 

Nobody breaks good news like Robbie. If there's controversy or a scandal, it's a safe bet that Jones kicked his ass.