Assistant sports editor, Athens (Ga.) Banner-Herald

Below is the official job description.

It's a job based largely around page design - probably 3-5 nights a week depending on any other writing or multimedia assignments you may be wanting to take on. It mentions there would be some news design necessary, and that's mostly to do things like fill in for vacations or chip in on big sections.

Pay will depend on experience and abilities, but is probably in the neighborhood of upper 20s to low 30s.

We're looking to move pretty quick on this one, so please get us your info ASAP.

Feel free to PM me with any other questions you may have and I'll do my best to answer.

JOB TITLE: Assistant Sports Editor
DEPARTMENT: News
REPORTS TO: Chris White/ Sports Editor
HOW TO APPLY: Send cover letter, resume and web links to joel.kight@onlineathens.com. Please put ASSISTANT SPORTS EDITOR in the subject line. No phone calls, please.
STATEMENT OF JOB: Creative, driven, assistant editor with strong pagination, management, writing and web skills to generate, organize and layout content for the Athens Banner-Herald and OnlineAthens.com.

KEY COMPETENCIES:

-Ability to design and layout sports and news pages for daily distribution and special sections
-Ability to manage a team of writers on both short and long-term projects
-Working knowledge of PhotoShop, InDesign, Illustrator and FinalCut
-Understanding of social media in journalism
-Ability to copy edit and knowledge of AP Style

DUTIES AND RESPONSIBILITIES:

1. Duties include designing sports pages for the daily section as well as regular special sections, such as UGA football Gameday packages and fall high school football tab editions. Some news layout is also part of this position.
2. Managing a team of writers, photographers and interns on long and short-term projects.
3. Familiarity with sports issues is imperative, as news judgment is an integral part of the daily duties. The Assistant Sports Editor will often design pages solo and be required to mix the top national sports stories with important local news. Ability to weigh which stories are most important and decide what kind of treatment to give each is crucial.
4. The candidate must also have copy editing experience and familiarity with Associated Press style.
5. Must have the ability to post content directly to OnlineAthens.com and help innovate coverage with editors and web support staff to meet Morris Communications’ digital first philosophy.
6. Must have writing skills, be able to maintain a blog and a social media presence, along with the ability to interact with an online audience.
7. Multimedia experience is a plus, particularly in producing and promoting items such as videos and podcasts.
8. Must be willing to work nights and weekends.

EXPERIENCE
College Degree
Two years daily newspaper experience preferred.

This is not necessarily an exhaustive list of all skills, requirements working conditions associated with the job. Management reserves the right to revise the job or to require that other or different tasks be performed.

 

WOW...$20s to low $30s for an ASE job in a market like Athens, Ga. Doing University of Georgia football tabs, etc.
Even in that market and affordable cost of living (or is it, I have no clue about Athens' costs).

This is a great job in general. But you guys are paying way too high, man. Watch your Budgets.

 

How many people on the sports staff?

 

We're looking for someone versatile and who is willing to put in the mad hours the rest of our small staff does when it's necessary. I've probably had two or three real days off where I didn't do anything work-related since the Masters. We're a 20K paper with a particularly large web presence for a paper our size, so there's a lot of stuff to be done and odds and ends to manage while juggling the basic like page design.

This also might be the first time in SJ history someone has said - and the lack of blue makes me think you're serious - a job may be paying too much.

 

Staff is four: Myself (SE), an ASE, a UGA football/men's basketball writer and a UGA non-revenue sports and general assignment writer. We lost a preps position along the way, and just about everybody and nearly all of our freelance budget goes to chipping in on that to do what we can. Ideally, this ASE would help coordinate our preps coverage.

 

Sounds like a decent gig. Hard-working overachievers who take a lot of pride in their stuff. Athens seemed like a cool town when I visited back in the 1990s.

I've got to assume at a shop that size, everyone (including the SE) does some writing, some editing, some layout.

Do you do anything beyond AP on the Atlanta scene?

 

Athens is a good place, but with a family and a 2 year old, I'm too much of an old man to enjoy much of the college-town aspect of things. It's a good place for a family, too, though.

Our current ASE doesn't do anything outside of page design and web stuff, but he was hired in better times when the staff was significantly larger. The person who comes in to fill his shoes will have to want to do some of everything, as you said.

And there could be some opportunity to do some Atlanta stuff, but nothing too regularly. We could probably get credentialed to do some Falcons features, there are a couple of WNBA players with UGA ties playing at the Dream tomorrow, stuff like that.

 

I can't imagine he was being serious. I hope not, anyway.

 

I hope the position hasn't been filled yet, sent in my resume late last night.

 

I was the preps guy they lost to layoffs awhile back. I can vouch that Chris is a good guy to work for. He helped me land on my feet with a reference for the job I am currently in. The paper is really pushing the "digital first" angle and Chris is doing a lot to make that happen.

If anyone has any questions about anything else, feel free to PM me.

 

If you PM him, he'll tell you what he really thinks.

 

I don't think he was being serious either.