Copy Editor -- The (Hilton Head, S.C.) Island Packet,

The Island Packet and The Beaufort Gazette, which serve Hilton Head Island,
Beaufort and Bluffton, SC, are seeking a copy editor/page designer. We're
interested in candidates who can creatively design pages, aggressively
handle copy, spot holes and inconsistencies in stories, write headlines that
are clear and crisp, and maintain accuracy on deadline.

Knowledge of InDesign and Photoshop is required.

The Packet and Gazette, whose combined circulation is about 35,000, are
well-respected dailies owned by The McClatchy Co. The copy desk is a
consistent award winner in state newspaper competitions. For more
information about the Packet and the Gazette and the communities they serve,
read the profiles included below or visit islandpacket.com and
beaufortgazette.com.

Please e-mail a one-page cover letter and a one-page resume to Ellis Harman,
copy desk chief, at eharman@islandpacket.com.

Initially, send only the cover letter and resume. The resume should include
professional and academic highlights, dates of graduation and job
changes/promotions, scholarships and awards and names and telephone numbers
of references. The letter and resume will be key in determining whether to
proceed with an application.

Please do not send work samples as attachments with your e-mail. After
reviewing your resume, we may then ask for page samples.

ABOUT THE ISLAND PACKET, THE BEAUFORT GAZETTE AND THE McCLATCHY CO.

The Island Packet is a small (22,000 circulation), well-respected newspaper
that serves Hilton Head Island and southern Beaufort County.

The Beaufort Gazette (12,000 circulation) is among the oldest daily
newspapers in South Carolina, founded in 1897. Its coverage focuses on
northern Beaufort County, including the cities of Beaufort and Port Royal
and the neighboring sea islands that stretch to the Atlantic Ocean.

Hilton Head is a resort community that attracts about 2 million visitors a
year; it has a full-time residential population of about 37,000. Beaufort is
a historic city that offers a combination of the Old South, featuring
stately antebellum homes in the downtown historic district, as well as
modern suburban neighborhoods, many on waterfront property.

Beaufort County lies on the coast between Savannah and Charleston in an area
that's rich in many ways — historically, environmentally, culturally and
economically. If you have seen the movies "The Water is Wide," "The Legend
of Bagger Vance," "Midnight in the Garden of Good and Evil," "The Big
Chill," "The Great Santini," "Forest Gump" or "Something to Talk About,"
you'll have an idea of what the area looks like. (All were filmed here.) The
area is notable for other things, too — for example, Pat Conroy has set most
of his novels here and an annual PGA event, the Heritage golf tournament, is
held on Hilton Head.

The Packet and Gazette serve diverse communities in the heart of the coastal
area known for the "Gullah" culture and dialect. One of the issues we have
focused on over the years is the survival of Gullah in a place where rapid
changes are occurring. We also have an emerging Hispanic population.

Northern Beaufort County has a significant military presence — Parris
Island, one of two training bases for U.S. Marine recruits, is here, along
with a Marine Corps air station and a Naval hospital.

The Packet and Gazette are owned by The McClatchy Co., the third largest
newspaper company in the United States, with 31 daily newspapers.
McClatchy-owned newspapers include The Miami Herald, The Sacramento Bee, the
(Fort Worth) Star- Telegram, The Kansas City Star, The Charlotte Observer,
and The (Raleigh) News & Observer. In addition, McClatchy has a robust
network of internet assets, including leading local Web sites in each of its
daily newspaper markets, offering users information, comprehensive news,
advertising, e-commerce and other services.

The newspapers’ staff includes graduates from Northwestern University, the
University of Missouri, the University of North Carolina, Boston University,
Columbia University's Graduate School of Journalism, the University of
Kansas and other distinguished journalism schools. For some staffers,
working here is the first job out of school; for others it's the second or
third.

We have become an excellent starting point in the careers of many young
journalists.

The Packet and Gazette take seriously their role as community watchdogs. We
are known as papers that will shine a light on issues that deserve exposure.
The newspapers consistently make outstanding showings in journalism
contests.

We also insist that public officials adhere to freedom-of-information laws
and we will go to court to make FOI laws stick.

The Packet and Gazette merged their copy desk operations in September 2007,
their sports departments in July 2008 and their photo departments in October
2008. In September 2008, the Gazette moved its main base of operation from
Beaufort to Bluffton, in the same building as the Packet, while maintaining
a smaller office in Beaufort. The impressive facility in Bluffton opened in
late 1999 and includes a state- of-the-art printing press that was added in
2007 and services both newspapers. That addition cost $20 million and speaks
to our commitment to provide readers quality products and our belief in the
future of newspapers.

We believe that first-rate newspapers like McClatchy’s, combined with
dynamic on-line news delivery systems, have an extremely promising future.

To find out more about the Packet and Gazette, take a look at our Web sites:
islandpacket.com and beaufortgazette.com

For information about The McClatchy Co., go to www.mcclatchy.com.

Per: http://www.journalismjobs.com/Job_Listing.cfm?JobID=1238057

 

God damn, do I love Beaufort, S.C.

Great gig for a fresh college grad.

 

Not many places in this country I would rather be at any given moment than Hilton Head, S.C.

 

Careful. The SE is a real prick. And a shitty golfer. ;D

 

Note: I don't believe this is for the sports department. But it would be a great place to work.

 

Haven't seen the Packet as much in the last couple of years, but when I do get it, it's a good product.

 

At least one of these things is true.

This is not for sports, but if you want to work at a newspaper, you can do a lot worse. I came here for a year or two more than five years ago.

Good folks on the news desk, too.

 

That sucks. Well, at least you get to work in the same building as the man who's won 134 APSE awards in the last three years. Even if he molests collies.

 

Nice area. The gig, albeit not in sports, isn't so bad. Now if they could just do something about the wages.....

 

What do you know about the wages? Because the last I checked, we were pretty high up on the scale for an entry-level position. When I started as a reporter here, it was my second job in the business, and I got a $7,000 raise from my first stop. Just sayin'.

 

Just sayin, I guess things have improved. That's good to know.

 

It still costs a fortune to live there.