Moses Lake, Wash.

Anyone know anything about this one? Would you get to cover the Microsoft softball team??

Company: Columbia Basin Herald
Position:
Seeking reporter who loves sports
Location:
Moses Lake, Washington St.
Job Status: Full-time
Salary: Not Specified
Ad Expires:
April 9, 2007
Job ID: 746381


Description:
Do you love sports? We need help in our newsroom.

The Columbia Basin Herald is a daily newspaper seeking a sports reporter. The successful candidate will be responsible for writing sports news and features, and photography. Our newspaper covers 11 high schools, one local college, and Washington State University, in addition to the professional teams in Seattle.

Our next sports reporter must be able to have well-developed skills in English and the AP style, know and understand sports, be able to edit copy, work well with others, be an energetic team player, capable of handling multiple projects, bear strong interpersonal skills and would enjoy being surrounded by a fun loving group of co-workers.

Experience and the ability to perform layout using Adobe InDesign and Photoshop are pluses. This position could lead the right person to becoming our next sports editor.

The Columbia Basin Herald is a newspaper with a circulation of 9,000 publishing Monday through Friday from the shores of Moses Lake, Wash. Moses Lake offers a great small town feel with big city features. Outdoor recreation is near by with close locations for skiing, powersports, fishing, golf and more. Our area continues to grow with the recent additions of Microsoft and Yahoo! data centers and a $600 million silicon plant expansion, all surrounded by farms of potatoes, onions, mint and cattle.

Send a résumé, cover letter and any clips by e-mail to managing editor Bill Stevenson at editor@columbiabasinherald.com or by mail to 813 W. 3rd, Moses Lake, WA 98837.

 

No. The main campus is still in Redmond, a suburb of Seattle. I would assume all of the softball teams are built out of that campus.

 

Mmmm ... the smell of mint and cow pies right outside of town. Where do I sign up?

 

You'll die of boredom. Otherwise, enjoy!

 

I wouldn't qualify the Tri Cities as big, though. Spokane and Seattle would be the only real cities nearby. I've only driven through Moses Lake, though I stopped at a gas station once and I have heard from relatives in Eastern Washington that it is a strange town.

 

By "covering Washington State University, in addition to the professional teams in Seattle," they mean "running AP stories about."

 

Good point. I laughed when I initially read that.

 

What's important is giving your readers the best possible coverage, whether it is locally written or written by AP, etc.
I wouldn't send an entry level writer out to cover, say, the 49ers or Warriors when we could utilize someone from one of the Bay Area papers. I would send someone to do some sort of second-day feature, at least until he is able to put his gee-whiz attitude aside and do a professional report.
Some papers in SoCal actually are bypassing their own people to use wire service accounts.

 

Moses Lake also has a summer college wood bat baseball league team.

It's 180 miles to Seattle, across the pass; 100 miles to Spokane, and about two hours to Pullman.

 

Right, but when an ad says, "Our newspaper covers 11 high schools, one local college, and Washington State University, in addition to the professional teams in Seattle." It makes it appear that they might be in the press box at Safeco Field or Martin Stadium, when they will actually be covering Moses Lake and Ephrata high schools.

 

True. Good point.
But the right person could make this an interesting gig.
Out of curiosity, I looked at the Web site and housing, then contacted someone who knows the area.
A paper like that can't compete with the bigger papers on a day to day basis, of course, but it could attract someone willing to do the other stuff and also able to connect on the other assignments.
It all depends on what you want.

 

I didn't realize it is so far from Spokane and that trip to Seattle is no fun in the winter. You would really have to have no problem living in the middle of nowhere for this gig.