Considering a career move. Advice?

That's not his decision to make, though. That's the hiring editors' decision to make. He has to convince them of why it's NOT going to be a difficult transition.

 

Having not worked in journalism I am not in a position to offer any advice on the potential transition. I have however moved up in my company from jobs that I absolutely loved even though there was more risk and pressure to perform.

I found that the new challenges compensated for the "fun" of the old gig and while I do not have as much fun on a daily basis, I love what I do and more importantly (to me at least) the decisions I make have more of an impact.

On a completely unrelated note I have been on this site since 2001 (for frame of reference purposes) and I am shocked at how crappy the money is in journalism.

 

It's just flat-out supply and demand. More people want to do the job than there are positions available. And since journalists don't actually bring in any money, it's tough to justify salaries that are any higher than they are.

On another note, I'm always surprised at how much sports journalists here find the idea of working in news so uninteresting and revolting. Man, that's where the good stories are.

 

I'm not as worried about this as I was before I started looking into doing this for real.

The office has a part-time secretary lady who has been there forever and, from what I am told, knows both towns that I'd be covering like the back of her hand.

And the full time reporter there is the same way.

I'm brushing up on my local town news this weekend as I'm going to read as many of the past year's worth of papers as I can.

 

Forewarned is forearmed. If he gets the position, I'm sure he'd like to succeed.

 

That's very good prep. You definitely want to absorb as much as you can.
I really suggest you learn the open-gov't laws for your state. The editor has to know what information the paper is entitled to.
Explaining to reporters how they object to illegal closed sessions or object to the closing of court hearings, these things come up.

 

Smart people figure it out.

 

Good advice here. You'll also need to know your way around the courthouse -- and especially the terminology of the courtroom. For instance, there's a difference (at least in my state) between a defendant being "arraigned" and his first court appearance. Sentencings can be confusing, too.

Not necessarily things that will come up in your interview, but things you'll need to know as a news editor.

 

Most often you'll have an arraignment. That's when the charges are put to you.
Later you'll have a prelim. hearing, or a series of them, when the judge decides whether there's really enough evidence to go to trial. In most instance this takes the place of what used to be an indictment.

 

That's solid advice for him.

 

i second that. i went from sports writer to lawyer. i don't love what i do. most of the time - by which i mean about 50.1 percent of the time - i like it. the money isn't great at my level but it allows me to have a nicer lifestyle. it's too easy to tell yourself you're a sellout if you're doing it for the money but that kind of talk doesn't pay your mortgage.

take the news editor job. you can always go back to sports.

 

I'd rather "sell out" my job than my family any day.