Preps writer/editor in Fort Wayne, Ind.

Posted on jjobs.com today:

Do you have a passion for prep sports? Are you interested in going beyond the games to find the real stories of high school athletes and the sports they play? The News-Sentinel, a 30,000-circulation p.m. in Fort Wayne, Ind., is seeking a "player/coach" to write and help direct its award-winning coverage of prep sports. We have published a weekly PrepSports tab since 1993, and our annual preps preview regularly wins APSE special section honors. Check out www.news-sentinel.com for our innovative online preps coverage, including podcasting, polling and blogging. The News-Sentinel offers regular training opportunities -- both on- and off-site -- directed by a newsroom team. Three hours from Chicago, the paper is being redesigned to get ready for a new press in 2007. If you're up to the challenge of competing in a two-newspaper town, please send a resume and at least 10 clips to The News-Sentinel, Attn: Sports Editor Elbert Starks, 600 W. Main St., Fort Wayne, IN 46802; or to estarks@news-sentinel.com.

So what does any one know about this paper, the area, the people there, this particular position. I definitely was impress by their preps online presence.

 

Fort Wayne's a two-newspaper town. One is AM, the other PM. Can't remember which one is better, but one is clearly better than the other.

 

This is the PM. Most people would say the other paper, the Journal-Gazette, is better. But I know good people who've come out of the News-Sentinel, too. Former Knight-Ridder, so I guess it's McClatchy now. And it's in a stable JOA, so there's not much to worry about there. In the world of 30K papers, you could do a lot worse.

 

It's one of the ones McClatchy dumped. Sold it to Ogden:

http://www.oweb.com/indiana.html

 

That's Robin Hartman's job.

Obviously you have to fill it, but seeing the ad is still sort of creepy.

 

Imagine being the new guy for this position then. Are these big shoes to fill at this position? Also, how would a new person be received in this kind of situation? I guess that would depend on the rest to the staff.

 

I know all about the paper and the people.

A 30,000 paper, yes, but a lot of talented, hard-working people in the newsroom. They don't let circulation numbers keep them from thinking big and doing quality work.

PM me for details.

 

Do they value being a paper of record?

 

They're a PM paper in a two-paper town. If they followed traditional ways of giving the readers the news, they'd just be a clone of the competition. Does that answer your question?

 

Um ...

The exec editor just e-mailed me this posting. Does anyone know if they do mass-mailing to anyone who has an online resume on job sites? Or is there a chance I could score a job at a bigger paper just after a month or two of starting my first full-time writing job?

 

If anyone has any questions about the position, the paper, the city or whatever, PM me.

 

The city is filled with bumpkins. I doubt it's really three hours from downtown Chicago, and telling people they need to be up to the challenge of working in a two-newspaper town is a big joke.