Rocky Mount (N.C.) Telegram Sports Reporter/Designer

Sounds like it would be a pretty good job for whoever gets it.

 

Sun Drop. Yuck.
Can you still smell the Hardee's test kitchen from the Telegram's offices?

 

Luckily, no. The Telegram moved into new (and much nicer) offices a few months ago and, besides, I think Hardee's is completely out of Rocky Mount.
If you're interested in factory smells, there is a Cheesecake Factory factory up in Gold Rock (dumpy little collection of sketchy hotels and restaurants that exists only because of I-95).

 

I agree with what Fletch said. Ben is an excellent editor who knows what buttons to push. The trio that covers the ACC for him have each grown a lot in the last two years. This is a great gig for a young writer wanting to improve and cover some cool stuff. You'll get great clip opprtunities there.

 

Wow, somewhere that gets it... I could see a paper in a place like Rocky Mount have an editor, a part-timer and a few stringers, and that's it (and have the company looking for places to cut)... nice to see some devotion to a product...

 

When I was hired in 1993, that's exactly what the Telegram was like in the Thomson era. Two full-timers. No budget. Two inside pages, perhaps three on Sundays. And a complete lack of respect from the community.

The old building was down a dark and dingy side street, one block off the train tracks. It had cheap threadbare carpet that gave you a static shock every time you touched anything metal, crappy secondhand furniture, and there was mold growing on the walls and asbestos hanging from the ceiling.

For the most part, folks who had worked there were Down East natives who knew a lot about the area but not much about journalism. So C. Jemal Horton, the first black sports editor in the Telegram's history, and I were outsiders with something to prove.

He was just out of college by way of the Durham Herald-Sun. And I had worked at the Contra Costa Times and Fort Lauderdale Sun-Sentinel before putting in 14 years in large-market radio news, but wanted to get back into sports and get some design experience.

When I interviewed for the position, Corey handed me a section front from the previous regime -- one that prominently featured a three-column standalone photo of a kid with a dead deer and the cutline "Nice Rack" -- and said, "We're going to drag this sports section, kicking and screaming, into the modern era."

And we did. We scraped a lot of silly cornball weekly features and beefed up our coverage of ACC and the pros, but continued to write the hell out of the local high schools and N.C. Wesleyan, but not the homerish way they had been presented in the past.

We weren't exactly accepted by the local populace, but we took it as a compliment when someone would say, "You ain't from around here, are ya, boy?"

It was a big deal when we were finally allowed to travel to ECU's Liberty Bowl appearance against Stanford. But because we did a professional job, and got positive feedback, it allowed us to try other things, like getting credentials for the Carolina Panthers -- even though the four-hour drive each way was on my own dime every Sunday.

When Corey left for Macon, I was promoted to SE -- and got lucky in three respects. One, the paper hired Jeff Herrin as managing editor. Two, Cox bought the paper and put some needed money into it, including moving us to a nice office. Three, I was fortunate to hire a series of great, young, talented, hard-working guys to help me out.

Herrin saw the value in a strong sports section, and Cox gave us the financial backing to expand, which gave us more pages and color section fronts. We went to three full-timers -- and Patrick Brannan may have been the first SE with four.

There aren't many times when you can honestly say "I left this a better place than when I found it," but in the case of the Telegram, it's true. But I had a lot of help -- and I'm glad the folks who have followed my footsteps have taken it so much further.

And I wish I could say the future is bright for the business, but I'd be lying. If faced with the same decision to switch careers right now, I'd be very hesitant to ever return to print.

-- Mark

 

Love seeing a Rocky Mount thread again.

First, congrats to App. He showed growth immediately after starting there -- not only in terms of writing ability, but also in his general approach to the job. That'll serve him well in Indiana. Just hope he can find a sports bar there that'll show Redskins games.

As for the Telegram, almost the entire staff is different from my time there. My man Jessie is still in the fold. He's one of my favorite people in the world, let alone the business -- despite being a Giants fan, even. Just a good, good soul.

I've met Ben and Matt at various events, and they seem sharp. Matt's an Ohio U. alum. I have it on pretty good authority that the folks in Athens know how to grow 'em up to be good at two things -- and one of them is journalism.

Pay was bad ... for me at least. But I think Gluck was making close to seven figures, with negotiations under way to get his own helicopter before he decided to leave.

Truly, it's a place for folks to come, work their rumps off, take advantage of the open-minded editors, and improve to the point where they're good enough to move on. I know a lot of papers claim to serve that purpose, but the Telegram is one of those with a proven record.

Other than that, we played wiffle ball in the parking lot at least once a week. Still waiting for Boyd to throw one over the plate.

 

I know the area and the section well. If you have any questions, feel free to send me a PM.

 

I've been asked a few times in PMs, so I figured I would go ahead and post it for public consumption. Since Feb. 2005, the Telegram has seen the following people leave (and where they are now).

Andrew Carter -- Orlando Sentinel (now covering Florida State)
Travis Sawchik -- Myrtle Beach Sun News (now covering Coastal Carolina)
Jeff Gluck -- NASCAR Scene (associate editor)
Mike Graff -- Fayetteville Observer (news enterprise)
Jason Boyd -- Columbus Ledger-Enquirer (designer)

Gluck did a tour of duty in California, and Graff was covering region colleges for the Observer.

 

whats the deal with this one?

 

Been in touch with Ben Jones, who said in an e-mail:

"Thanks for the followup. We are just now going through the portfolios after dealing with some unexpected state champions.

I'll keep in touch soon.

-- Ben"

 

I'm not trashing Rocky Mount -- but that list is as monstrous a selling point for going after this gig as any.
The paper's reputation has editors around the Southeast looking at this place for solid, young journalists when their going through hiring. It's because the paper has produced some good, good people. If you're into moving up the chain, this isn't a bad place for a young person.