Jumping ship worth it?

Trying to get some popular opinion from you wise men and women out there in the journalism world. Would it be killing my aspirations of getting to a major metro (considering the state our profession is in, I know it's an amusing prospect) if I left small daily (sports) to become managing editor of a weekly in a metro area? Obviously the pay would have to be worth the move, but all in all, I just wanted some input from you vets out there. And just in case you're curious, I've been in the biz more than 5 years but less than 10.

 

No. Take the management position. It will help you in the long run, even if it's at a weekly (assuming you do well).

 

Go to law school.

 

I would say that it would depend upon what you feel you could accomplish there. If you have bad resources and a publisher who won't allow you to improve the product, you won't be able to show what you can do and you will be made to look like a small-timer. If, however, the product is not so good and you will be permitted to make improvements, especially visually* (sorry, DyePack's ghost), then you will have tangible before-and-after copies of the paper to show future prospective employers.


* while I don't believe this will help the business, it is more tangible to an outsider than claiming that you improved coverage.

 

you can move from news to sports and back again, especially in management.

 

so basically, if i don't have a micro-manging boss and produce a quality product the move should work out for me in the long run?

 

Yes. It could....a lot of it's up to the situation -- and you.

 

Not to jack your thread, zman, but I had a similar question:

I'm currently the SE of a weekly paper of about 90,000, and have been offered the job as a sportswriter at a daily paper of about 20,000. The pay is a few grand more, but my question is similar to zman's: my aspiration is to get to a major metro and write sports there, so would this move be beneficial for me, or would it not really help at all?

 

Weekly has a 90K circ? I would take the gig at the 20K daily. You can build clips on a continuous basis and probably get more editing.

 

Thanks. Yea, we cover an area of 1.3 million people.