Crystal River, Fla.: Sports Copy Desk for Citrus County (daily) Chronicle

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Sports Copy Desk

The Citrus County Chronicle, a 7-day daily located in Crystal River, Fla., is looking for a person to work the sports copy desk. This person is responsible for laying out 5-7 pages nightly and contributing stories for the Chronicle sports section. The sports team members write and produce the daily sports sections, annual footbal tab, special sections and make additional contributions to the 28,000 circulation daily, 30,000 Sunday Chronicle. The successful candidate must be a strong sports editor/writer and paginator/page designer. Must be dedicated in designing an exciting and compelling sports section. Must excel at local sports coverage and offer a balanced wire-copy package of college and pro sports. Must be organized, deadline-conscious and a stickler for accuracy. Qualified candidates should have a B.A. degree or equivalent experience (two years in sports department of daily newspaper or four years with non-daily). Expertise with Quark and familiarity with Photoshop. Candidates should have strong interpersonal skills and the ability to quickly adapt to change. Interested persons should apply to: Mike Arnold, HR Manager, Citrus County Chronicle, at marnold@chronicleonline.com Click here to view full details
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http://www.lcni.com/jobs/fulljobs/SportsCopyDeskCitrusCountyChronicle.txt

JOB POSTING

SPORTS COPY DESK
CITRUS COUNTY CHRONICLE
Crystal River, FL


The Citrus County Chronicle, a 7-day daily located in Crystal
River, Fla., is looking for a person to work the sports copy
desk.

OVERVIEW: The sports copy desk person is responsible for laying
out 5-7 pages nightly and contributing stories for the Chronicle
sports section. The sports team members write and produce the
daily sports sections, annual football tab, special sections and
make additional contributions to the 28,000 circulation daily,
30,000 Sunday Citrus County Chronicle.

The successful applicant must be a strong sports editor/writer
and paginator/page designer. Must be dedicated in designing an
exciting and compelling sports section. Must excel at local
sports coverage and offer a balanced wire-copy package of college
and pro sports. He/she must be organized, deadline-conscious and
a stickler for accuracy.

QUALIFICATIONS
* B.A. degree or equivalent experience.
* Two years in sports department of daily newspaper or four years
with non-daily.
* Expertise with Quark and familiarity with Photoshop.
* Strong interpersonal skills.
* Ability to quickly adapt to change.

ESSENTIAL FUNCTIONS
* Designing pages on Quark within parameters of general formats.
* Writing crisp, accurate stories, headlines and photo captions.
* Working on special projects and tabs as needed, including an
annual football tab.
* Managing section space and work flow.
* Helping with the coordination of local coverage for five high
schools, the golf and outdoors pages.
* Helping with coordination of wire service coverage.
* Editing for libel, AP style, grammar, clarity, accuracy.

Contact:
Mike Arnold, HR Manager
e-mail: marnold@chronicleonline.com
fax: 352-564-2935

 

I know the area pretty well if anyone has any questions. Don't know too much about the paper but I was always surprised at how good it was for 25,000-30,000 circ. when I saw it. The St. Pete Times even closed its Citrus County bureau a couple years ago, in part because it made sense to cut out the most remote county in its coverage area when trimming stuff, but from what I've heard from some Times people, the Chronicle was some very strong competition.

There's a fairly new toll road you can hop on in the south end of the county and be in downtown Tampa in 30-45 minutes, maybe less, for about $5 each way. Gainesville is a little more than an hour away in the other direction.

 

I too worked there in 1990-1992. Got to cover pitcher Mike Hampton when he was at Crystal River High.

You basically cover three high schools, Crystal River, Lecanto and Inverness Citrus. And Mike Arnold is a very calm laid back guy. He was a correspondent for the paper when I was there.

I just moved from Inverness just two years ago to Clermont near Orlando. Lived there for 17 years. It was a town where I could park my Jeep Wrangler at Lowes with the top down, leave my wallet on the front seat, come out an hour or two later and the wallet will still be there.

And yes, I drove from Inverness to downtown Tampa while I was at the Trib for 8 years. It is exactly 74.9 miles and took me an hour and 15 minutes. About five minutes shorter to Orlando and if you go to Gainesville via back roads you could make it in about an hour (As long as some service-type truck isn't in front of you.) I won't lie, those driving times did come with a strong wind and a little extra on the gas pedal.

There are some good cheap watering holes in Crystal River like Port Paradise and Cracker's. Both sit on the water. If your coming from up north, fair warning, this is Old Florida. Nothing bad, just expect a laid back life.

 

Cracker's is the way to go, man. And my girlfriend and her family tell me Margarita Grill down the road in Homosassa is also stupendous.