Assistant Sports Editor, Woodbridge, Va.

The Potomac News, a daily about 25-30 miles outside Washington, D.C., is seeking an assistant sports editor. Candidate would be responsible for putting out the sports section five days a week on a Tuesday-Saturday shift. We primarily cover the preps, but we also cover some pros and colleges and a Class A minor-league baseball team that is affiliated with the Washington Nationals. Our section has won first place for sports pages the last two years in our circulation category in the Virginia Press Association awards competition. Candidate must possess ability to put out great-looking and error-free pages on deadline. Knowledge of Quark Express and Photoshop a must. Applicants should send a resume, a cover letter and five design samples to Jobs, Potomac News, P.O. Box 2470, Woodbridge, Va. 22195-2470 or e-mail to jobs@potomacnews.com. The Potomac News is owned by Media General, the Southeast' s leading provider of news, and offer excellent opportunities for advancement at our mid-size and metro dailies.

 

My sister used to live in Woodbridge. When I would visit her, I picked up the paper. It looked to be a solid product. I liked the layout as well. Seemed to have a fresh look each day.

 

I know one talented writer there. Seems like a cool college town to live in; George Mason, IIRC.

 

Actually, GMU is a good 20 miles up the road in Fairfax. Woodbridge is sprawl-city, as is most of Prince William County. Still a good paper to cut your teeth at, but don't expect to get rich there. You'll make MG community paper wages in one of the most expensive places to live in the nation.

 

Man, this section has lost quite a few people in the last four months. Who's the latest to leave? And how many are they down to?

 

There's a bunch of analogies about just how open the ASE spot here has been, but this isn't the board for it. Suffice to say, they've had a lot of turnover at this one spot. Not sure if this is a repost or if it's a new opening.

 

Just to clarify: It's a repost. Unless someone has interviewed, been hired, started and quit since I got out of town.

WB, the last guy in the position returned to a previous job he had in Williamsburg, replacing the plagiarizisto (that a word?) down there.

 

Yes, nothing against the paper and the great folks there, but this is about as far from a "cool college town" as you can get.

 

Yeah, it's definately not a cool college town, by any stretch of the imagination. That being said, it's in a great part of the world to live. With DC and Baltimore within a stones throw, you'll never run out of things to do.
I don't know much about the day-to-day workings of the paper, but the couple of times I've flipped through it, it's seemed solid.

The biggest negative to this job, as I believe was mentioned above, is the cost of living will be through the roof since you're in that whole DC urban sprawl part of the world.

 

There's this one guy on staff there who knows his beer and burgers. Clutch dude.

And last I checked they staff the Skins regularly and the Nats on occasion, as well as the Nats' farm team in Prince William.

 

Before the usual barflies get going, this is a good step up for many. Money might be a question but you will gain a lot in experience.

 

Biggest issue there is money. Northern Virginia is not cheap and the pay is not great there. Media General newspaper.