Aurora (Ill.) Beacon News, two positions

The Aurora Beacon News, a 30,000 circulation daily in the western Chicago suburbs, has two sports reporter openings.

For the first, a full-time position, we are looking for a versatile writer who is driven to find the great stories in our community. While coverage of our 21 high schools is our bread and butter and some game coverage will be necessary, the thrust of this position will be feature and enterprise writing. Along with preps, we cover Northern Illinois University football and the Kane County Cougars, the Class A Midwest League affiliate of the Oakland Athletics. Previous newspaper experience is required.

The second position is part time, 25 hours a week. This job will be split evenly between desk work – answering phones, typing in agate, writing roundups, etc. – and writing. We are looking for someone who will take their desk responsibilities just as seriously as their reporting duties.

The Beacon News is part of the Chicago Sun-Times Media Group. For both jobs, night and weekend work is required. Application deadline is May 4.

Please send a cover letter, resume and three to five clips to: Aurora Beacon News, 101 South River Street, Aurora, IL, 60506. Attention: Todd M. Adams, sports editor. You can also email them to tadams@scn1.com. Please indicate which job you are interested in. No phone calls, please.

 

Don't know much about the paper, but this is a good sports area. The preps, particularly in basketball, are strong.

 

So are Wayne and Garth still on the air up there?

 

I think they now OWN Stan Mikita's Donuts, actually.

 

Did Wayne wind up with Cassandra or did she find a real man?

 

Before Copley sold the paper a few years ago, this was a writer's and especially photographer's paradise. I don't know what it's like now but I know it's not at the level anymore, which is really sad. It was a great community paper under Mike Chapin.

 

I don't think there are too many real men in Aurora.

I've heard the same things about this place as McNuggetsMan. I know they're owned by the Sun-Times group now.

They had some sort of royal screw-up by implementing a universal desk in which all the papers in the group (Waukegan, Elgin, Joliet, Aurora) had essentially the same front page, with one slot for local stories and the rest being focused mostly on Chicago pro teams. If you're a suburban paper, that doesn't make a lot of sense -- unless you're the Daily Herald and can cover pros and preps with equal fervor.

 

for the full time job does college newspaper experience count as newspaper experience? or should I apply for the part time job?

 

anyone care to ballpark a salary for the full-time gig?

 

Just a guess $30,000

 

Skinsnoles21: Unfortunately, college newspaper experience probably does not count toward "newspaper experience." When I was in school I was always frustrated by that because our college paper, as it turns out, was run more professionally than some of the daily papers I've been at. I would still apply for the full-time position. If you're one of the runner-ups for the full-time role, I'm sure they'll contact you to see if you'd be interested in taking the part-time gig. Best of luck. PF

 

Thanks Philly...In general...is sending in a resume via email or snail mail more effective. Applying by email is obviously much easier, but does sending your resume and clips through snail mail show more interest?